DIY

[Guest PT247]

maybe just a single magazined shotgun would be easier. Would probably involve buying one of the shell eject shottys and copying everything to make it take 40mm shells. Think it would be way more effort than it was worth but would be damn'd cool if it had a twin fed magazine.

this is a home made pump action China Lake:

[sp00n]

after many weeks of pulling my hair out i have finally done it :-

 

 

wtf is it i hear you ask .... inside its:-

 

 

to sum it up its a IR "firefly" (beacon/strobe effect) with smart control, that means during day light it shuts down to save power

 

this is only my first version ... i can program more led's to it if i want

[Guest PT247]

got a vid of it in action?

[sp00n]

got a vid of it in action?

 

unfortunately my iphone cannot see IR, so this is a really bad video shot through my WM2 NVG's (but you should get a good idea of how it works)

 

 

[Guest PT247]

That is awesomeness mate :-)

[Ian_Gere]

^^I'm waiting on some battery trays, AA & 18650, to build something similar with a motor inside, supported by dense foam, to also make a quiet noise. I'm going to fit it inside a Soviet infantryman's torch, to match era with my NVG:

 

 

It will not be smart though, just a pair of pushbuttons inside the screw lid to switch the LED and motor on/off. I was thinking that I may add a visible light LED and buzzer and attempt to use a key finder fob to wirelessly switch those on/off, because in my design the blinking IR LED is just to help me find the poxy thing in the dark and (for those who have joined us recently) the quiet motor sound will be just to distract from the quiet sound my NVG makes. But a more obvious distraction device built in would make the thing potentially a lot more useful. I'm not at all sure how well soldering the receiver antenna of the key fob to the container will actually work however, because in low power circuits like that, afaik if they are encased in a metal box that is usually connected to the earth rail, and the earth rail is the opposite pole of the circuit from the antenna.

 

If anyone knows this stuff for sure, any help would be gratefully appreciated.

[Ian_Gere]

So the larger of the 2 trays arrived this am but, when I thought about it, I realised that both battery trays wouldn't fit inside the tube with everything else, so I decided to go with putting the 18650 in a tray, because that will need to come out for recharging, and soldering some bullet connectors to AAA batteries for the motor. I decided to test that I had read the destructions properly and build it with a red LED first, so I wouldn't have to get me NVG out to see it working/not. And this is the result:

 

I spose I ought to be pleased that it does do something...

but it never occurred to me that when I read "1Hz" it would mean 'on' and blink 'off' 1/s because... unnnnnnngh why would you ffs!?!

 

This is what I'm working to:

Does anyone know what values of Ra, Rb, and C i should be using for 'off' and blink 'on' at approx 1Hz?

 

What values did you use for the fast blink, Sp00n?

[TacMaster]

Does anyone know what values of Ra, Rb, and C i should be using for 'off' and blink 'on' at approx 1Hz?

 

I've experimented with making blinker circuits in the past- general rule of thumb is lower capacitor value = faster blink. If you can get your hands on a capacitor with a lower farad value that should work.

I once used a very tiny 2200pF capacitor in a blinker circuit which gave the LED a strobe effect. You can get them from here.

Careful with it though, I once accidentally reversed the polarity and it burst spectacularly for such a small capacitor.

[sp00n]

What values did you use for the fast blink, Sp00n?

 

Mine is using a attiny13a, basically a programmable chip. The resistor is across the diode to allows me to use the diode as a light detector, and shut down the chip to save power

[Ian_Gere]

The thing is, i don't want it to blink faster, i want it to be 'off' and blink 'on' momentarily. It must be possible... but if I use a larger capacitor with the circuit as is, that will just make it take longer between blinks 'off'.

[sp00n]

The thing is, i don't want it to blink faster, i want it to be 'off' and blink 'on' momentarily. It must be possible... but if I use a larger capacitor with the circuit as is, that will just make it take longer between blinks 'off'.

 

kipkay used to have a schematic on how to do this, but its been taken off his webby , but the youtube video still exsists

[Ian_Gere]

Have you got a link?

[sp00n]

if you watch it to around 2min 20's you can see him assemble the cct

 

[Ian_Gere]

Thanks mate!

 

I got it working using a 2 x 22KΩ in series as Rb and 2 x 22KΩ in parallel as Ra which gives about 1.3Hz and approx 53% on vs off cycle. A mate on fb suggested i get an app, which helped But the way i've put it together isn't very good for the tin, so I'll have another go at it some other time.

[geoffreym]

having a bit of a mess around with my rifle, didn't have a problem with the weight but it was just a bit too long to use in anything but fields

 

 

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

My Rifle is having a bit of an identity crisis, inspired by the TM Pro Hunter, And maybe a little from the new Jurassic World trailer

 

It started all black, then became a bit camo'd

 

 

And today has transformed to ...

 

 

 

 

I stripped all the Camo tape off the scope and sprayed it with some Plastikote Brilliant Metallic chrome effect paint. Its not chrome at all, its very flat, but still retains a metallic look. Unfortunately you cant lacquer it as it turns the paint a dull grey akin to primer.

The barrel and receiver of the gun was blinged up with some Aluminium tape. Its used by builders who need alloy tape for stuff. It only cost £5 for 10m and is pretty good. I got the idea from watching a Tested Video on Youtube, apparently Hollywood prop makers use it to make chrome things. A quick bit of brasso and it can polish up quite shiny, or a quick once over with wire wool gives it a matt stainless steel look.

Its just like tin foil, but thicker and sticky backed. just lay it in an smooth it out. It does wrinkle if not careful and my first attempt Its not perfect when you get close up, but it is non permanent and just peels off.

I'm working on a velcro veil made of a shemagh and scrim to cover it up for when i do want to play stealthily.

 

What do you think, I like it, but i'm not sure i'm going to keep it forever.

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

Snip

I can see why you painted it,you can always strip off the chrome stuff to revert to the original black. I would have gone the full mile to sand and polish the metal bits for proper chrome but that's a more permanent approach. I actually quite like how it came out,from far away it looks spot on for a pro hunter

[Ian_Gere]

It's perverse, but i do kinda like it. But like that it wont be much use as a sniper rifle when the weather brightens up, because it will glint even through a veil.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Most of my current sites play fairly quick attack and defend games where range accuracy and tactics are more valuable than concealment, however A few min with a shemagh and ...

 

 

 

I need to leave a little of the left hand side exposed so not to jam up the bolt, but a few well placed cable ties cover most of the glint, you will only see it if your coming from the side where you will probably already have the drop on me.

 

I tried to strip and polish the barrel on my m4, until I realised it was hard anodised, gave up and painted it. Plus I can't justify spending any money on a polishing wheel this close to Christmas.

It would look very nice properly cut back and mirror finished. I did consider getting it pseudo chrome plated at my local car tarter upper, but for the price of the tape I think it's a reasonable compromise.

[Guest PT247]

gonna try see if the single stack hi-cap I am building will work on one of these:

 

 

If so, I'll keep this and possibly sell the double stack HPA hi-cap GHK G5 mag and may continue with the "normal" hi-cap I'm building and sell that too.

[Albiscuit]

Love the blinged up rifle!!

[Ian_Gere]

Even though this is pretty simple, I'm sure there are more of you who like me have thought, "I just don't need even 2L of water on my back for a game and any weight I can shave off my loadout is all to the good," but when faced with the prices of smaller hydration bladder and pouch combos, or just the pouches, have thought, "Bollocks!" How can the smaller ones be so expensive, eh? It's not as if they a miniature and requiring additional craftsmanship or anything

 

Anyway, I managed to find a 1.5L bladder at a sensible price here which comes pre-fitted with a Camelbak stylee removeable bite valve and tap (which are £8 on their own), so that you can decant the water into a cup, or a hand (to rinse a BB fragment out of your eye without scratching your eyeball for eg). I then bought a simple 2-3L size molle bladder pouch from here - what I wanted was lightweight and OD and you can't get much simpler unless you dispensed with the outer molle and the insulation pocket. I wanted the opportunity to fit a piece of old camping mat to prevent my body heat warming the water, but that would make sewing it a little less than completely straightforward.

 

It's a simple enough job to turn the pouch inside out, but then you find that the edge seams are bound with 20mm black webbing - great for the quality of the item and its longevity, but a bit of a ball ache to undo with a seam-ripper. I then had to cut the angles which allow holes in the bottom of the insulation pocket, so that any water which may get inside can run out of the bottom, and refinish them with the bits of thin edge binding which were originally lower down. Then it was a simple job of cutting the webbing seam binding to size, pinning it and sewing the new seams:

...ignore those straps with the metal hooks - they're from the webbing it's now attached to.

I then wanted an admin panel on the back as it's no good having patches and no velcro to attach them to. So I used a couple of layers of the pouch leftovers, some UBACS elbow neoprene, bit of 20mm OD webbing, and some velcro:

...big enough for an NAE patch, but most likely to be carrying an AF-UK one

(as it doesn't fit neatly on the front of the webbing).

Turned out remarkably neat for one of my creations so yeah, forget blue bladders, or £50-odd combos, and make your own!

[straffham]

Very neat work Ian ^^

 

wish my sewing skills were anything like that good!

[Sitting Duck]

Blimey - very good work indeed....

 

I was gonna put a sarcastic comment how good your sewing craft is

but nope - gotta admit that is a very nice bit of work there sir

[Ian_Gere]

Oh yeah, the fact that i can sew definitely casts aspersions on my sexuality but £30-ish posted from fleabay and you can't go wrong:

...you need needles made for sewing jeans to cope with webbing

and self threading hand sewing needles make it easier to tidy up the loose ends in a way which will not come undone; few pins; you should get a seam ripper with a machine but even if you have to buy one, they're not dear, and they do work much better than scissors.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Ian_Gere
oh yeah, and some needle threaders for the machine needle