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Mythbusters!!!
- Thread starter Philby21
- Start date
n1ckh
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- Aug 21, 2014
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A good friend of mine had an rc boat hull, deck & super structure made from 3mm thick clear plastic vacum formed 
He used clear silicone to seal it all up with battery etc inside (still had access inside it)
It looked pretty cool on the water & had a little camera inside to record everything
He used clear silicone to seal it all up with battery etc inside (still had access inside it)
It looked pretty cool on the water & had a little camera inside to record everything
Ian_Gere
Retired Moderator
- Apr 1, 2012
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Keep us posted!
He sounds like someone who could get at least part of this mission done. Is he into airsoft yet and if not, why not?A good friend of mine had an rc boat hull, deck & super structure made from 3mm thick clear plastic vacum formed
He used clear silicone to seal it all up with battery etc inside (still had access inside it)
It looked pretty cool on the water & had a little camera inside to record everything
n1ckh
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- Aug 21, 2014
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Sadly mate he's not, doesn't interest him apart from using parts in his boatsKeep us posted!
He sounds like someone who could get at least part of this mission done. Is he into airsoft yet and if not, why not?
I make rc boats aswell
But if I was to to build a fully see through rifle & mag then I'd start with one of those see through m4's
I know a few engineering people who could mill out a barrel from acrylic rod, the gearbox from acrylic block etc & from what I've seen, you can get clear hop units aswell
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Colonel Kurtz
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- Jan 19, 2015
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Then you could put it in an ICS sportline clear body. Somehow the idea makes me feel like an airsoft pervert.
Colonel Kurtz
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Wow I never thought my 6 months working in a plastic factory (mostly thermosetting) as a kid would have any use/relevance in later life.
The milling will indeed leave it rough and not see-through, 3D printing would be much worse/rougher. You can make it transparent again with combinations of buffing/polishing/heat-treatment/solvent, but it'll be painstaking to do if your just using a standard milling machine and a block of standard acrylic, and easy to ruin. Another concern is if your are doing it in one-man-and-his-workshop fashion, then the milling process can warp the acrylic due to heat. (not its shape, but consistency so it's cloudy/wavy inside). The milling machines at the factory i worked at had massive cooling setups to keep things at specific temperatures, tailored to the compound (which was also tailored to the task)
In my time working there, I mostly did finishing on BP garage signs. There's one out there in the UK somewhere which has a delightful sketch of an oil-barrel with a penis f*cking a whale scratched into it, and a couple with a standard 'woz ere'.
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NickM
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- Apr 29, 2012
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You can get some really nice glass rods and glass tubing for making scientific equipment. I'll have a word with our technicians and find out if a slightly larger than 6mm diameter is available. Its fairly easy to work but I would be curious if a bb fired down it might cause it to crack.
It is possible, at work I deal with acrylic more than I like to. A good cooling system is required. Ours is air cooled, most engineering millers will be liquid cooled. Special acrylic milling bits can be bought which leave a better finish than a standard bit would leave, or a diamond bit can be used to leave a pretty much clear finish. We use flam polishing on any acrylic we cut but this is not ideal for something like a gear box, due to small holes and tolerances. The heat would warp it all. A chemical dip would be better.
n1ckh
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You could mould the items using liquid acrylic
Make up the mould from rubber then pour in the acrylic, the same can be done with the barrel, that way it's just the outside that would need a polish to make it see through again
Plus with the mould, you can have the barrel window already done or have a slight indent to show where the window is
You can use all exsisting parts as the pattern for what needs to be done
Make up the mould from rubber then pour in the acrylic, the same can be done with the barrel, that way it's just the outside that would need a polish to make it see through again
Plus with the mould, you can have the barrel window already done or have a slight indent to show where the window is
You can use all exsisting parts as the pattern for what needs to be done
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ImTriggerHappy
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- Feb 25, 2015
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Crack on then.
n1ckh
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NickM
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Upshot of my discussions with the technicians, glass tubing comes in a variety of sizes but there are a few different types of glass and getting the right one is important, it seemed one is better with heat, one is better for impact and they didn't know which was which. They are sold with internal diameters but they tend to be dead on the mm, so 6mm or 7mm would be available. I guess with a set of digital callipers you might be able to pick one out of a batch that would work but there would be no guarantees that the diameter would stay consistent all the way through. The final issue would be cutting the hop window, with a diamond dremmel wheel might be a good idea but you could end up shattering the tube.
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