TheDunkis

Very interesting, haven't seen a custom striker design like this before. Though a couple concerns. First off, if you're going to go through the effort of cutting up a metal rod, you might as work out a place to hold the bands instead of binding a K'nex piece (a modified one no less, but you could use a ball socket instead). Second, the range of a K'nex gun is typically dependent on the speed of the striker, which generally means you want as light of one as possible. There are other factors that using metal benefits, but weight certainly isn't one of them.That all said, it's certainly an interesting concept and I'd be very curious to see any further attempts you make. Like, do they make similar sized wooden dowels you could try using next?

Haha glad you built a version of it previously. I'm determined to keep K'nex launchers alive even if I do it mostly alone. I'm hoping to post proper instructions to an updated version of the Barackuda soon.

(not sure if the comments got out of order, 'ibles new comment system is slightly confusing)Ah, sweet, looking forward to seeing what you managed!

Indeed. We've all seen the value in it but it was just too large to tackle. It could literally be a book some day.Amen. Just having the willpower to build can be enough of a struggle. Did you get that idea independently too? I had the same exact idea, using a lever at the front of the semi-auto slingshot to act on the equivalent of a piston to automatically drive the trigger, making a truly fully automatic K'nex launcher. However, likewise, I could never figure out a frictionless trigger. Stacking up bands produces a lot of friction. Not to mention we'd realistically probably only get up to 10 or so bands before -something- starts failing. I imagine the thing would fire 700+ RPM so with only 10 shots or less, it'd be more like a sputter gun. Still, it'd be incredibly novel so by all mea...

Indeed. We've all seen the value in it but it was just too large to tackle. It could literally be a book some day.Amen. Just having the willpower to build can be enough of a struggle. Did you get that idea independently too? I had the same exact idea, using a lever at the front of the semi-auto slingshot to act on the equivalent of a piston to automatically drive the trigger, making a truly fully automatic K'nex launcher. However, likewise, I could never figure out a frictionless trigger. Stacking up bands produces a lot of friction. Not to mention we'd realistically probably only get up to 10 or so bands before -something- starts failing. I imagine the thing would fire 700+ RPM so with only 10 shots or less, it'd be more like a sputter gun. Still, it'd be incredibly novel so by all means I hope you can figure out the trigger. And I'd love to see more pump actions, so do consider revisiting. It looks like it's off to a good start. It's not quite along my preferred style, but then that's just how modding goes, I encourage everyone take my designs and adapt them to their own tastes. Pin guides have always been challenging for me, they tend to be awkwardly placed on block-style bodies. It's something I'm actually trying to figure out on both of my current projects. So I'm glad you figured out something fairly clean with yours. Keep me posted with updates.We probably could go back and forth, so we should do it in an interview haha. I'll write up some questions and PM you eventually. I've a couple posts backlogged so I'm not in a hurry but I'd definitely like to start getting other builders involved so it's not just about me and my limited perspective. In the mean time, start thinking about answers to generic questions like how you started building with K'nex, your preferred kind of builds, etc.

Heyo, thanks! Good to see you around.

Many thanks!

Indeed, but it's a nice challenge in itself, so I'll get to it..someday. And thanks, it certainly was upsetting at the time, but it made me realize before putting it out there that it really wasn't prepared for the real world anyway. It could've crashed at any point and lost everyone's data had I not got backups working correctly, so it's better it happened before that. Haha yeah, we all remember our first block trigger (I've been redefining a lot of terminology to be a little more accurate/less confusing). Back when we thought our own versions were "simple but powerful" and all that. It was very nostalgic. I kept that design around for a long time, sad I couldn't even remember the video I got it from. As long as you never truly quit, that's a lot more than most builders. Haha...

Indeed, but it's a nice challenge in itself, so I'll get to it..someday. And thanks, it certainly was upsetting at the time, but it made me realize before putting it out there that it really wasn't prepared for the real world anyway. It could've crashed at any point and lost everyone's data had I not got backups working correctly, so it's better it happened before that. Haha yeah, we all remember our first block trigger (I've been redefining a lot of terminology to be a little more accurate/less confusing). Back when we thought our own versions were "simple but powerful" and all that. It was very nostalgic. I kept that design around for a long time, sad I couldn't even remember the video I got it from. As long as you never truly quit, that's a lot more than most builders. Haha, well to be fair, my Oodassault and Barackuda have been the only serious things I've really done in the past 5 years. It's taken me just as long to post things. Hmm, the MARR slipped past me, but looking at it now, it's pretty slick. I like the concept of it, modularity is oddly not all that common for launchers made of a construction toy. Have any other ideas floating around? Else could revisit the MARR and see what else you could do with it.Thanks, I really appreciate it! Your clip makes sense, it's all about the trade off between speed of reloading and stability. Man the magazines are finicky as heck. Some people have better luck than others. My hypothesis on your magazine is that the pressure of the pusher bands keep the magazine pushed out a little and allow the rounds to exit cleanly, but when it begins to empty, the pressure of the tilting bands overcome the mag pusher and the pole starts to barely stick into the round being fired, which causes a whole mess of problems. That's why I had to carefully rotate a white rod in the gap to distance the magazine just right. I think Killerk's magazine connection method that I followed with the 3.8 is a little more reliable in that regard, but then it sacrifices some capacity and is harder to make a locking mag pusher for. Look forward to anything you might do with it. I've been curious to see a rifle version of it, could never pull that off myself. Hopefully you can figure out your magazine. Oh yeah, I've been meaning to get more of these, at some point you wanna be interviewed for a meet a builder post on the blog? (yeesh, sorry for the wall)

Thanks, though honestly I put the series on hold pretty quickly because I couldn't figure out what the next step should be. Like, you can go in many different directions after you learn the basics of power. Because of that, I wanted to make a very basic, very modular launcher that I could reuse for several lessons, like a basic block body, then a basic magazine, then a basic stock and pin guide, etc. But I haven't come up with it yet. Funny how it becomes more difficult to build something simple the more experienced you are. Yeah, I don't know why 'ibles decided to go back to its old style. Any sense of K'nex gunning community we had left died that day and I just about lost all hope. I had started working on a full website with new forums and intending to make my own instructions editor...

Thanks, though honestly I put the series on hold pretty quickly because I couldn't figure out what the next step should be. Like, you can go in many different directions after you learn the basics of power. Because of that, I wanted to make a very basic, very modular launcher that I could reuse for several lessons, like a basic block body, then a basic magazine, then a basic stock and pin guide, etc. But I haven't come up with it yet. Funny how it becomes more difficult to build something simple the more experienced you are. Yeah, I don't know why 'ibles decided to go back to its old style. Any sense of K'nex gunning community we had left died that day and I just about lost all hope. I had started working on a full website with new forums and intending to make my own instructions editor + Instructable importer, but it crashed while developing and I lost all my work, which was pretty soul-crushing. But I had registered the domain name already so I figured at the least I could get a blog going until I see activity justifies making a full-blown website again. Glad to see you're still around. Hope you'll keep building and perhaps can help spark some activity back to a dying hobby. Just need to keep getting and teaching new builders I think.

Thanks, let me know what you think of the 3.10 if you build it. Honestly, it was finickier for me than I would've liked, but still better than the last version that I posted. I haven't posted anything in a long time so I wanted to finally make instructions again. The blog has done wonders for boosting my activity since I'll talk about an old gun I made and then find ways I want to improve it so I can post instructions for it. Mmm try again, long story shot, the URL gets ruined when I put it on certain sites. I'll try to fix it.

Haha hey, man. Well truth be told I didn't contribute a lot and all of the guns I did make were relatively small things and unfinished concepts. Heck after asking you to help make a bolt action, I didn't come up with my own post-worthy one until just a couple years ago. Good to see you around, you planning on staying long? As you can see, activity has really died down. K'nex gun building just ain't what it used to be, so it's exciting when I see stuff like this posted.

Not one of the best, just one of the oldest. But thanks. Keep it up!

That's pretty cool actually! So it's like an RBG but with a linear system instead of the typical cog action. It's admirable you're trying to stir activity as well.

I still find it amusing all the effort you went through to make that striker. Like, how did you even think to do all the things you did? At that rate, I feel like implementing a NAR-esque or rail system would be better. Not that the pin is over-the-top, but it's a little more involved than most people are willing to do, especially for children. But anyway, glad to see you're still posting updates here as well. I'm currently developing a site in my freetime to hopefully consolidate what remains of the K'nex community across 'ibles, YT, and perhaps elsewhere. I'd like to create guides and other more blog-like posts there to help encourage activity beyond posting instructions. It'll be great if you can help out if I finally ever get around to publishing it. Otherwise, just keep staying act...

I still find it amusing all the effort you went through to make that striker. Like, how did you even think to do all the things you did? At that rate, I feel like implementing a NAR-esque or rail system would be better. Not that the pin is over-the-top, but it's a little more involved than most people are willing to do, especially for children. But anyway, glad to see you're still posting updates here as well. I'm currently developing a site in my freetime to hopefully consolidate what remains of the K'nex community across 'ibles, YT, and perhaps elsewhere. I'd like to create guides and other more blog-like posts there to help encourage activity beyond posting instructions. It'll be great if you can help out if I finally ever get around to publishing it. Otherwise, just keep staying active around here and YT so we keep K'nexing alive.

I'm sorry, what was that?

Ah, I always wanted to see an actual working version of this concept, nice. Though perhaps add pump action to make it take care of the charging as well as the loading to greatly improve the RoF? Nice work regardless.

Noice. Yours is probably my favorite. I ended up getting an airsoft version of the PDR-C because I liked it so much, so someday I might use yours as a basis for my own.