I'm not sure how to tell the entire story, but I'll do my best. This is how I brought a simple, 30 dollar PVC LAW launcher from the airsoft community, (http://www.airsoftretreat.com) to the paintball community (http://forum.specialopspaintball.com), and all the changes it's underwent on the way. With help from my brother, my dad, and tons of great people on spec ops and AR, this RPG is becoming more and more complex, and far more fun to shoot.
I guess it really started when I got burned out from playing paintball the winter of my freshman year of highschool, 2005. In mid-november I put down the gun, and picked up an airsoft gun. I also actively participated in Airsoft Retreat's forums. A few weeks after joining, a design for a air-powered RPG was posted. It was made to shoot 2 inch nerf rockets, and used a ball valve for a release method. My dad and I went down the the local Home Depot, bought the parts necessary, and went to it. After a day to let the glue on the PVC dry, we brought the launcher out for its maiden voyage. After hooking up a bike pump to the schrader valve, we gave it 65 PSI and ripped open the valve. I was blow away as I watched the nerf football sail over a 100 years.
This was all well and good for a while, but everyone knows we soon must upgrade. I posted the design on Spec Ops Paintball's forums, and got an TSUNAMI of responses from the members. In the three weeks the design had been up, over 15 of these have been made, and many were being modified. Some old designers where sending me pictures of their LAW launchers, much more elegant than mine. Many were powered by a single-use 12 gram, or a direct-air style hookup. Operating on a 48 cubic inch, 3000 PSI tank, they could adjust how fast each ball would come out of the barrel, an important feature, especially for the scenario paintball circuit.
It would be over 9 months since we decided to change the original LAW's design. I had since gotten back into paintball, and joined a team who I still play with to this day, Team Boom, a division 3 and 4 team. This meant I would have some tanks laying around, which is important to the next step.
My brother, Luke, was assigned to make a Rube Goldberg machine for a science project. He wanted to incorporate the launcher in there somehow, but it needed to be automatically operated after the first object was put into motion. So what he ended up doing was getting a 1 inch solenoid sprinker valve, and a door-bell button. We made a second RPG from the ground up, with a smaller tank, and designed to fire 1 inch projectiles.
After getting first place in the science fair with his project, we went to the hardware store and bought a Drill Trigger, then taped it onto the step of the solenoid. Then we went to an Auto Store, and got a red safety switch, something that always fascinated my father, brother, and I.
We proceeded to wire everything together, and then debated on what to shoot. After discussing it in length, we found that a C-size battery is the perfect projectile for the one-inch barrel, and ran outside to test it.
I've never seen a battery go from 0 to 200 in 20 inches. Also, it produces a significant amount of kick, which was surprising to me, after shooting paintball guns most of my life.
So now we're moving on the the future. Our plans so far are to make a breach loading barrel, which my brother is in charge of. It will be magazine fed and the magazine will sit on the top of the barrel. The breach-loading system will be like that of a shotgun. A slide will pull forward to let the battery in, then slid shut to prevent blow-back of the battery stack.
From there, I'm heading up the direct air department. We'd like to make it fire at a relatively high rate, for a home-brew launcher. I'm planning on using a 48/3000 tank (like stated above) and then using combined with a second regulator, probably a stock ION regulator (because they're VERY cheap) and then making a direct air assembly. After that, I'm hoping to build some sort of shell so that our switches won't be held on by duct-tape anymore. Other than that, the launcher relies only on 2 9v batteries strapped to the top.
A video of the old launcher, as well as the new launcher, is coming.
Also, I'm including the plans for the original launcher. You can change things as you please, and feel free to repost it. I could care less about the credit, since I'm sure the original designer has long been lost.
Other than that, the rest is just ideas. If anyone has some good ideas about what we could do to this, I'm all ears. Post up, email me, whatever.
Thanks for the support guys!
Plans:
Please keep in mind, I take no responsibility if you shoot your eye out or anything else with this thing. Use at your own risk
(original website: airsoftretreat.com)
Well, this is mainly geared towards scenario players, but depending on how you play, this can work just fine.
These are pictures and plans for a 30 dollar air powered rocket launcher, which will shoot a 2 inch nerf football about 100-150 yards. I have built this, and while the plans aren't mine, they have been altered quite a bit.
Things you will need:
-4 feet of 2" PVC pipe
-2" ball valve (around 11-13 dollars)
-PVC glue (preferably the blue kind)
-PVC primer
-schrader valve (the tings on a bike/car tire you pump air into, found at any automotive store in the tire repair isle)
-2 inch pvc cap
Here are some visuals of the original.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Lets get started
Here are some more pictures of others (mine, vertigo's)
(most recent here, I added a handle.)
Full launcher:
Ball valve:
Scrader Valve
Cut your 2" PVC pipe into TWO sections of 2 feet each (vary this, the original was 2 1/2 feet, mine is 2 feet and shoots a little further
Drill a hole about 3 and 1/2 inches up on your PVC just enough to fit valve in, enough for the end cap to go on without it pushing on the scrader valve.
Put the scrader valve into the hole threaded side facing out and pull it as far as you can out of the hole with pliers, then, rubber cement it if you have any (not required) This part is shown in image 3.
Then, use PVC primer, prime it up, then PVC glue the rear cap right below where you mounted the scrader valve.
Then, on the other side of your PVC pipe (the same one with the cap and the scrader valve, AGAIN USING PRIMER) glue on the valve and wait for it to dry before fiddling with it.
Once it is dry, glue on the barrel, again, using primer.
Let this sit overnight before shooting.
To pressurize it, pump it up with a bike pump or some other kind of pump, 50-60 PSI.
Your finishing results should look like image 1 without the paint job.
To fire it, give it 50-60 PSI and open the valve as fast as you can with the nerf football in the barrel as far back as it goes. It should go over 100 yards.
here is a picture of the nerf football available at target for $3.00
These footballs are a perfect fit in the rocket launcher and will need a stick to shove the ball into it.
The ball valve will not open easily, and its recommended you put some sort of handle on it. I don't have pictures of mine, but do what he did for a handle. Or if you have some pipe on hand, do what I did (no pictures sorry) and bend it around the top of the ball valve and use something to hold it on.
I also have personally pressurized, and shot this at over 120 PSI. Some people say 50 pounds isn't safe in PVC pipe, but it is.
Also, I changed the directions around. If you look at his and mind, my 2" ball valve is threaded, so I put threaded ends on both the barrel and the air chamber, allowing me to swap out barrels or chambers to see what works better. When I get more money, I'll do it.
So post away gents.
The best way I have found to fill up these baby's is with a portable hand-held bike tire pump, running on 12 grams.
