Paul FSebastian
Active Member
I've been thinking and working for a long time on how to have a fully functioning trigger/hammer on this weapon prop without the need to use a solenoid and large battery.
I've seen Joatrash FX's excellent version of that solenoid functionality on here which inspired me to attempt to replicate it myself using some purchased resin models of the weapon, my Dremel, and a good old fashioned safety squint.
It did eventually work great, but my version needed a 6v solenoid to recreate a fast hammer action that was snappy enough to look good to me. That required a 9v battery to power that and the LEDs which was fine. But the solenoid drained the battery VERY quickly. The other issue was that the solenoid version I built only moved the hammer forward until the trigger was released, rather than have the hammer release halfway through the trigger pull. Blame my terrible knowledge of electrics.
So I've finally gotten a version to the point where it works as a concept and I've been able to PLA print all of the parts and assemble to test. It works great with a satisfying pull/action only using neodymium magnets as you can see in the video below.
The LED is the only electronic part, which only requires a single 3v CR2032 battery which is easily accessible in the barrel area.
I've located the switch back in the rear of the blaster (marked by the blue arrow) to try to emulate how I'd seen the hero props switched on in Adam Savage's YouTube video. So a paperclip or similar is needed to switch it on, as that's what it seemed to me was used in that video.
I also wanted the whole thing to be strong and feel like one single chunk of weapon without the need to necessarily glue or bond the prop together. So I've taken a lot of time to incorporate mechanical fixings throughout (Mostly M3 hex screws of different lengths) which add weight and a lot of stability and remove the need to use any glue/etc to have a finished solid prop weapon. Some small dome head bolts can be added too as shown in the finished photographs to add weight too and a bit of 'realistic' decoration.
I've incorporated routing for the wiring to reach the switch at the rear, and have included a cavity in the grip for weight to be added if preferred. As I am only printing in PLA at the moment I felt that the prop needed additional weight.
Overall, the months of work trying to find a solid mechanical solution to the trigger action has ended with a result that I'm finally happy with. Please excuse the rough finish and ghosting on the parts, i'm only using a fairly cheap standard Anycubic Kobra Neo and need to tweak some of my print settings for some parts and nothing has been sanded as yet.
I've seen Joatrash FX's excellent version of that solenoid functionality on here which inspired me to attempt to replicate it myself using some purchased resin models of the weapon, my Dremel, and a good old fashioned safety squint.
It did eventually work great, but my version needed a 6v solenoid to recreate a fast hammer action that was snappy enough to look good to me. That required a 9v battery to power that and the LEDs which was fine. But the solenoid drained the battery VERY quickly. The other issue was that the solenoid version I built only moved the hammer forward until the trigger was released, rather than have the hammer release halfway through the trigger pull. Blame my terrible knowledge of electrics.
So I've finally gotten a version to the point where it works as a concept and I've been able to PLA print all of the parts and assemble to test. It works great with a satisfying pull/action only using neodymium magnets as you can see in the video below.
The LED is the only electronic part, which only requires a single 3v CR2032 battery which is easily accessible in the barrel area.
I've located the switch back in the rear of the blaster (marked by the blue arrow) to try to emulate how I'd seen the hero props switched on in Adam Savage's YouTube video. So a paperclip or similar is needed to switch it on, as that's what it seemed to me was used in that video.
I also wanted the whole thing to be strong and feel like one single chunk of weapon without the need to necessarily glue or bond the prop together. So I've taken a lot of time to incorporate mechanical fixings throughout (Mostly M3 hex screws of different lengths) which add weight and a lot of stability and remove the need to use any glue/etc to have a finished solid prop weapon. Some small dome head bolts can be added too as shown in the finished photographs to add weight too and a bit of 'realistic' decoration.
I've incorporated routing for the wiring to reach the switch at the rear, and have included a cavity in the grip for weight to be added if preferred. As I am only printing in PLA at the moment I felt that the prop needed additional weight.
Overall, the months of work trying to find a solid mechanical solution to the trigger action has ended with a result that I'm finally happy with. Please excuse the rough finish and ghosting on the parts, i'm only using a fairly cheap standard Anycubic Kobra Neo and need to tweak some of my print settings for some parts and nothing has been sanded as yet.
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