home-made airsoft gun

[MacGyverPwnage]

I'm planning on making a home-made airsoft gun using a 5 gallon air tank, an air regulator, and an attachment that has a handle to release air. I already have all of the internal workings for it, inlcuding the air tank. However, im not sure what frame(i.e. an m16, m4, so on) i should put all of these internals into(excluding the tank, which is external). I was wondering if anyone had any ideas.
**i tested it out without a frame and at 20% pressure it shot at 300fps. Theoretically, it could shoot at 1500 fps, but i doubt it would.
Thanks.

[TehLlama]

Use muzzle energy, not velocity for those calculations (max. theoretical is probably around 800fps using .2g)

If you have no idea on a frame -- either find a good sprigner to scavenge, or go for something cool (Mechem NTW, Barret .50, Steyr AMR)

[MacGyverPwnage]

Alright whenever it's finished I'll give pictures and whatnot.
I may go for the Steyr IWS 2000 or a streetsweeper(most likely a streetsweeper because they own).

[mfs12345]

Maybe find an AUG body since they have the most room inside.  This would be nice incase of unplanned additions or problems.  And once you have everything in there you could pack in a lot of silencing foam to keep it nice and quiet as well as keep things from moving and shaking.

This sounds really cool BTW.  Please post a pic of the finished product and a video would be incredible.

Good luck!

[hurbt]

yoink a frame from a friend that has a broken gun.  Maybe ask a local airsoft dealer (if there is one near you) if he has any broken guns / frames layin' around.

[tyler]

sounds cool do you have any pics?

[Kraka]

sounds prety awesome......but 5 gallon? thast prety huge

can you specify how you made it shoot?

[MacGyverPwnage]

It uses a regular air gun accessory with a handle to let air go. Onto the airgun goes an accessory(not sure any specific name) that screws into the air gun that has a hole in it, just wide enough for a barrel. I used an old crappy springer barrel i had. As of right now, I have to put 12 bb's into the barrel, but I'm working on a way to spring load 12 at a time. It probably will be 12 pen cylinders that have a spring pushing the bb's upward. It's very simple right now, but after I spend more time on it, I'll come up with a better way of loading it. I am more for realism, thats why I chose 12 bb's at a time(12 gauge, 12 projectiles). It is not assembled yet, although I have all of the internal workings for it, I haven't gotten around to making a frame yet. I will post pics when it is done, but it will be a while. Also, a 5 gallon tank is the smallest I could find at my house.
Picture of the gun I am modeling it after: http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/SH09-E.HTM
It's a very simple design, so it will be the easiest.

[tyler]

nwoice

[Kraka]

12gauge doesnt = 12 projectiles....its juts the caliber of the shell...


and that street sweeper would be prety sweet if you could make your own tank....thats like where the drum mag would be......and yeah, thats a lot of work to make something like that...and i dont know how long that air would last...you woul dprobably have to refill that resivour prety fast if you did that......it may be easier to mod a maruzen m870 gas shotgun......or some other gas shotgun to look like that.....but thats an awesome shotgun......

this would be a prety sweet idea if it were like in a mortar or something.....so it could just launch one big projectile

[MacGyverPwnage]

a 12 gauge shotgun has 12 projectiles whos weight is equal to one pound. a 20 gauge has 20 projectiles whos weight is equal to one pound.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/shotgun3.htm

[Kraka]

i think you miss interperted that.....i think that they were saying that it was based off back in the day where you would buy lead by the pound to make your own ammo

This originated in the days when you would buy lead by the pound to make your own ammo

"12-gauge" means you can make 12 lead balls, each of equal diameter to the gun barrel, out of 1 pound of lead

i own and use REAL shotguns and know for a fact that not all 12gauge shells have 12 projectiles, there are a whole bunch of different types of shells (buck shot, 00, slugs...and the list goes on) and they range from dozens maybe even hundreds of little projectiles to one single projectile.....

[MacGyverPwnage]

ok we are even then because you were wrong in the first place
**removed "pwnt"

[Kraka]

yeah, so how is the firing thing like? is it just like an air adaptor that has a barrel mounted onto it?

[MacGyverPwnage]

right now, yes. but when i decide to cut and glue all the pvc and plexiglass together it will look like a weapon. for some reason, no matter how many bb's i put in there, they always come out at ~350 fps. i can shoot 12 at ~350 fps with a 4 foot spread at 50ft. max range i have seen is about 100 feet. im very happy because i've have always been looking for a realistic airsoft shotgun. this comes pretty close.

[Kraka]

so if you held the thing down it would let out all the air right? (just like a normal air hose)  adn its just a air tank your hooking it up to not a compressor right?........why not try converting a paintball gun.......?

how do you load it? muzzle load after every shot?

[MacGyverPwnage]

right now, yes. but ive got some pipe im going to hook up into the barrel that are spring loaded for the 12 bb's at a time. i wasn't sure on this method of loading, but its the best i could think of. im open to suggestions.

[Kraka]

why not try and make like a gattling gun (dont know if i spellt that right) or mini gun like thing.....

hook up a fan in front of the air hose, and a bunch of differend barrels in a circle, then have like a gravety feed resevour of bbs in the back of the barrels, so when you squeeze the trigger of the air hose, it will rotate the cylinder of barrels adn have the bbs just drop down adn "fire" as each barrel passes by......

i dont know how well that would work, but thats just an idea

[MacGyverPwnage]

well i can see where air pressure would be lost(gravity feeding hole), but the main reason i don't do that is because i lust every night for an airsoft streetsweeper. i will think of a better loading mechanism eventually after playing around with it.

p.s. just so everyone knows, im not some 30 year old engineer, im a 17 year old kid who happens to have a niche for mechanical design. just thought that might clear some things up.

[Kraka]

i searously think that your best bet would be getting the maruzen m1100 and modding that to the streetsweepr look.....other wise i think that it would take way too much brain power and stuff to get it a working model from scratch

[Harenil]

Go for like a 1919 or other machine gun, you can get parts kits and dummy sides plates for reasonable prices.

[MacGyverPwnage]

i thought about putting it in an m2 shell, but im not sure fully automatic fire would work. ill see what happens. after this is done, im probably going to make a mortar or something(taken from a friends suggestion). ill experiment with different thing because this air tank idea has a lot of potential.

[Jdog]

I would realy like to see a diagram of how everything works. My brother just bought a Unimog and would like to mount an air powered airsoft gun up there. The Unimog has a constant air compressor when it's running, so that wouldn't be a problem.


JTP

[MacGyverPwnage]

ok jdog its painfully simple
hook a pressure release valve(an air gun) you can get at home depot for like 5$ onto the pipe and shove a barrel onto it. push the air gun lever to release air. loading the barrel can be done many ways. you could even just replace a mechbox in a lpeg with the air gun and put the airgun's nozzle flush with the hop-up chamber.

[Kraka]

i still think that modding a m1100 would be your best bet if your going for that street sweeper look, or maybe even a m870 if you dont mind pumping....