Posts by Wood Guy

    Maybe one or two comments on the "Penetrating" epoxy. I use thinned regular epoxy, not some "special" formula, and I don't use just one coat. If you like the matte finish that looks like oil, apply the epoxy, then wipe the excess off with a dust free rag. Repeat, repeat, etc. while you build up many thin layers of matte epoxy. No bubbles. I've also used cross linked poly urethane as a top coat (actually MANY top coats). The beauty of it is that after the epoxy is down and sanded smooth, the urethane goes on really smooth, whether it's sprayed or brushed (I prefer sprayed).


    A Grandson's First Gun - Spearboard bubble blowers drama forum

    [quote='LunkerBuster','http://spearfishing.world/forums/index.php?thread/&postID=89406#post89406']You are gonna be done before my blank gets here!![/QUOT]


    Patience is a virtue! Aw, screw patience, I'll take another look at it tomorrow!

    I was referring to the handle frame. The higher up into the blank you can recess it, the less the muzzle "flip" or "jump" will be. Of course, adding weight to the muzzle helps, but you can only do that to the extent you need weight forward for trim.


    The build's looking good!

    "My blank is just a touch over 1.5" tall. I'm using a Neptonics reef mech with the auto reset tab and it's a mid-handle so things are going to be tight down at that end of the gun but I think it will work. First lesson learned is make a taller blank when using that mechanism."


    1.5" is tall enough if you use a handle frame with a flat recessed base. Personally, I prefer to set it up kind of high in the blank and use a bent push rod, but I know some guys don't like them bent. I have found that the rod doesn't flex if there is nothing binding it, but with 2-5/8" bands recoil won't really be a problem. Whichever way you go, if you use a flat based handle frame make sure it's recessed into the blank enough to be flush.

    From my point of view, it's not so much how fast the sound travels, since it's moving way faster than the spear. Rather, it's whether the fish tries to spook, and whether it can react fast enough to affect the impact point of the spear. I don't think you can make a gun quiet enough for a fish not to hear. It's well recognized that bubbles from SCUBA , or noise from bubbles, makes fish wary, and yet most of us have probably used a fish's curiosity to entice it out of a hole by rubbing the point of our spear in the sandy bottom. So, I think they hear (feel?) any noise that we are aware of, it's more a question of whether it spooks them, and if so, can they move fast enough to react and move out of harm's way in about .16 seconds. I suppose it depends some on the species, as well. I hunt mostly snapper and grouper- which move at glacial speed compared to wahoo or tuna. So, I think in every case the fish hears the shot since no gun is completely silent, it comes down to whether he wants to, or can, move quickly enough to affect shot placement. Make any sense? :rolleyes1:

    My tank was from some OSB I had forever, and was 16" high x 16" wide x 24' long, and was designed primarily for testing fairly small guns, with the idea that I could add another 8' section if I got into testing longer guns. I coated it with the liquid rubber used on roofs here. It worked pretty well, but I knew it was the wrong material when I built it- I just wanted to see how the concept worked before I spent a lot of $ on it. The "high speed" camera is definitely low end, but again I wanted to prove the concept. I got next to no helpful input, so I concluded either no one had done much, or they had decided not to share what they knew. Like I said earlier, I just wanted to see if a low cost version was do-able, and the video shots of guns functioning was the primary purpose, the velocity measurement secondary. The tank is spongy in places (Duh- what'd you expect with OSB?), so the next one will be .080" or so aluminum, but I've got too many projects ahead of it to say that will be anytime soon. Here's the thread on it: http://spearfishing.world/spea…d-speargun-test-tank.html

    I got fairly close with my test tank and a 1000 frame per second camera. Tin Man and I shot several short videos to study muzzle characteristics on some of his projects, and on the first rg I built to try to separate a few myths from facts, so I could design rg's based on science rather than conjecture. I put a piece of white plastic sheet with stripes every 2 inches opposite the camera, and could actually count the frames as the shaft left the gun, thereby allowing velocity to be calculated. It was a crude system by any standards, but it worked. It was also a PITA to use with the way things were set up, so I shelved the idea until I could build a new test tank (wider to get a better video shot), with a side window so the camera could shoot the video from the outside of the tank.


    Because of the above, actually building the guns became more fun than rebuilding the tank and testing stuff, so the tank sits there, still a mystery to the neighbors (It's for training racing Koi! :laughing3:). It's on the list, but not on the top of the list, so I'll get back to it one of these days. For now, building guns that are a little different is more fun, so the test tank will have to wait for another day. But it's out there, waiting....

    "No I wasn't aware of the auto rest mech, I'll get that for the next one". :thumbsup2:


    I'm pretty sure Josh will swap out the mech you have for an auto resetting mech if that's what you prefer, or just send you a different sear so you can change it yourself.

    Twisting is , in my opinion, the hardest problem to deal with when the lams are less than perfect. I would suggest you make sure they are flat along the top when the lam is on edge. Saw or plane them so they are, then when you glue the lams, make sure the twisting is offset to try to balance the internal forces. I would also suggest you hang the blank for a couple of weeks after it is glued up so you can tell how / if it's going to show any twisting. Normally, 1/8" on the top and sides would be enough, but the lams are showing quite a bit of twisting, so 1/4 oversize would be better.


    Most guys prefer open tracks for murky water, but I prefer enclosed tracks, so that's generally what I build. I think I'm in the minority, however, since shooting a fish too close can wreck the end of the gun if the shaft doesn't clear the track before it hits the fish.


    The Neptonics gear will serve you well - Josh sells good stuff and his service is second to none. Did you get the auto resetting mech? Not sure if you knew it, but you have to ask for it or you will get the version you have to manually reset, or install a separate auto reset. The auto resetting mech has a small tab sticking down in front of the trigger, the manual resetting one does not.


    Good luck with the build - good to see you're already planning another build. Very few builders only build one!

    Shoot the handle that feels most comfortable to you, and fits your type of shooting, and don't apologize for it. What everyone else likes or dislikes doesn't matter. It's YOUR gun, and you should rig it the way YOU want to. I'm sure everyone wants to help, but at the end of the day, it's your gun so rig it the way you want, shoot it, and if you're not happy with it, change it until you get it the way you want it.

    This gun turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated, and I view the gun not as a finished product, but rather as a work in process. I wanted to get the gun in Angie's hands this summer, so she will shoot it this summer, then I'll make any necessary changes (I'm sure there will be many) over the winter. I've had a chance to kill a snapper with the prototype, and, typical of rollerguns, it shoots straight, smooth, with little recoil. I will probably drop down from a 3/4" band to a 11/16" band on my gun, since for my hunting I just don't need all that power. Another nice thing about the winch is that it truly is a variable power gun. One revolution of the crank stretches the band 2 inches, so you can adjust the power on the spot just by turning the crank.


    The weather was overcast and rainy when I took these pics, and I was in a hurry to get the gun to Angie, so I couldn't wait for better weather.


    All in all, I think the gun turned out pretty well. Angie will hunt with the gun next week, and I can't wait to see how it works.


    Shoot 'em up, Angie, and let's see some pics!

    This is the piece I started with. I'm not sure exactly what part of the yacht it's from - almost looks like inside trim. I do know it's some damn fine looking teak! I sawed off the wood that wasn't teak, then planed it down until I had all good wood with no cracks, as shown on the right. Later, I would remove additional wood to get the right ballast by tapering the bottom and narrowing the width. Next post I'll show you how it turned out.

    I used a Tin Man handle for both the prototype and Angie's gun. I like everything about this handle. No reason to move the mech further back and use a pushrod on this gun since the winch is strong enough to stretch a 3/4" band to a 4:1 ratio. This way it's also easy for Angie to customize the grips to fit her hand.



    I had been saving another piece of teak from a yacht. This seemed like the perfect time to use it. In the next post I'll show you how that worked out.



    Things are shaping up, it's starting to look like a speargun!

    Once I got the winch working the way I wanted, I started on the gun itself. The gun itself isn't all that different from other rollerguns I've built, except that it is heavier because of the winch. My plan was to use the winch as ballast, and trim the gun the way I wanted by removing wood until I got the buoyancy I wanted. More about that later.


    I made a delrin enclosed track and installed it, then got some good news from Tin Man. I had used one of his recently prototyped reverse mechs on the prototype gun I made as I was making Angie's gun, and he provided another reverse mech for Angie's gun. There are only a few of these out there for testing right now, and I have to say this is the smoothest mech I have ever shot, bar none. It has a cross bolt safety like a shotgun, which can be removed easily if not preferred, and shoots more like my Ruger 270 than a speargun. When this mech comes on the market, I won't be shooting anything else. The takup is crisp and short, and the honed sear and trigger contact surfaces make the thing a joy to shoot. Most of you know Tin Man is my son, but it wouldn't matter - I'd still be shooting this mech, even if he wasn't related.


    I made the delrin rollers and used a 1/4" diam. standoff as the axle. After experimenting with the mock up I found I needed to make the rollers a little larger so the end of the bands could "crawl" over the top of the roller and under the gun. I ended up with 1.5" diam. rollers. I made them 3/4" wide to accommodate either a 3/4" or 11/16" dia. band. The pic is of the rollers I started with, not the 1.5 dim. ones. I also installed a 3/16" wide aluminum muzzle reinforcement that is installed in a slot under the gun. This strip serves two functions: It carries the load from the rollers back into the solid, stronger part of the gun, and it serves as a shooting line anchor. Even though I've got enough support on the outside of this gun, the strip allows me to thin down the thickness of the wood on the outside of the rollers without sacrificing support for the rollers.

    Here's what I ended up with for the winch prototype. I stopped counting the parts, and subsequent versions will have fewer parts and a few more standard parts like sleeves, etc. Still more complicated than I wanted. The sprocket looking part is actually the ratchet, and it keeps the handle from unwinding when you load the gun. The lever is the pawl, which engages the ratchet and holds it in place. The lever on the pawl allows the ratchet to be released so the gun can be unloaded or reloaded after it has been shot. The small button next to the pawl can be slid down to prevent the pawl from releasing, up to allow the pawl to operate normally as in loading the gun, or up and forward to hold the pawl in the released position. All of the parts are stainless steel except for the bushings which are bronze, and the crank knob, which, for this winch, is delrin