Posts by Wood Guy

I've still got a little tweaking to do, but I hope to shoot it next week at a target and see how it shoots. There are mor differences between a conventional gun and a rollergun than I thought, so I'll see how it shoots and go from there.

Originally, I had made band anchors out of aluminum channel that was screwed to the underside of the gun. I didn't feel comfortable with that, so I installed 1" x 2" aluminum pieces in the stock and pinned them with 3/16" aluminum pins, then milled out the little hooks. Since I was after a gun that could have a preload, there were 4.

The gun will be able to shoot with or without the preload feature. It sinks with the shaft in, and floats level without the shaft. Here are a few more pics.

The track is an open 11/32" track with a poseiden sub mech. Tin man and I installed his "rubber rivet" silencer on my last trip to Baton Rouge. The handle is aluminum with a shapelock grip. I still need to do a little more definition on the shapelock, but I can shoot it like it is (Jeff, is there a maximum number of cycles shapelock can go through before it loses it's properties? )

I made the handle frame a little longer than usual, and installed the line release in the front of the handle frame. A short push rod from the line release tab on the bottom of the mech operates it. Hopefully, the channel down the center of the underside of the gun will keep the shooting line from getting tangled with the bands. We'll see.

More in the next post

Hi Y'all'

I finally got around to almost finishing my first attempt at a rollergun. I'm considering it a prototype, which is code for "I screwed up a lot of things but finished it anyway" Actually, there are some things that are new that I want to try, and depending on how they turn out, I'll build a "new and improved" version down the road a little.

I found the rollergun a bit of a challenge, trying and discarding ideas as I went. The final result looks a little like it was designed by a committee, but turned out fairly well, despite all the modifications I made as I went along. Not a lot out there on rollerguns. Phil H was helpful in his posts, and there were a few other rollergun builds, but not much.

Anyway, here goes:

The gun is only 30" overall, sinks with the shaft in and floats horizontally without the shaft. I built it for hunting the turbid water in Pensacola Bay, FL, where tin Man and I do most of our local hunting these days. It shoota a 9/32 or 5/16 shaft in an open track, and is designed to shoot either one or two 5/8" bands. We often get shots at decent red snapper and grouper, and I wanted th have enough power to shoot a 15- 20 Lb fish. Most shots are less than 12 feet, but if the gun shoots straight enough I might try rigging it for 14' or so.

I started out thinking I would build the muzzle out of aluminum channel, but as I got into it I couldn't get the strength between the aluminum and the wood I felt comfortable with, so I mortised in a piece of teak, and the muzzle became teak along with the rest of the gun. I stole the shooting line retainer idea from Bretto's post (I told you I would, Brett!). It's fastened with the forward roller axle and the pin you see between the two axles.

I installed 2 epoxy coated magnets under a delrin muzzle piece to hold the shaft in place.

The delrin rollers are 1-1/4" for the front, and 1-1/8" for the rear, and are tapered to make the rear bands move inboard when stretched, and the front bands move outboard. The axles are 3/8" aluminum bar stock with the ends drilled and tapped to hold 8- 32 screws with washers.

I'll continue in the next post.

Nice tutorial, Tin Man!

Funny! <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> The gun seems to me a good example of "new" not always meaning "improved". Seems like the roller would cover up all or most of the target

Oh, the stories I could tell about the "sickness"....

And you're right- more noble, less reactive! Maybe it's the 25 or so years difference in the schooling, or the CRS I'm afflicted with!! <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

Oh great, now the Tin Man will be trying to figure out how to power the laser with the electrolysis! <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">

Is the cf you are using electrically conductive when it's encased in resin? In any case I don't think it would behave as a metal, so I don't think you would get galvanic corrosion between the carbon and the aluminum. You would get it between the aluminum handle and the ss pins, but the more noble aluminum has so much mass You would have a lot of corrosion allowance. It certainly would be no worse than fastening an aluminum handle with ss screws. I guess if you wanted to be sure you could use aluminum pins instead of the ss ones for pinning the handle.

Does the sear have enough clearance to release the shaft easily, or could you tell with the bench test?

So Tin Man / Grizwold, am I right in thinking that anyone who won the FRA raffle or auction could be the proud owner of this gun or one like it to their specs?

What a great post! Reminds me of some of the early go carts I made as a kid- ironing board, bunk bed frame. That gun belongs in a special place on the "Wall of Fame"! Do you still hunt with it?

Lots of guys have struggled with how to cut the hole for the tube on a hybrid. You make it look simple! Very clever approach, thanks for sharing!

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I think this topic is closely related. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do penetration tests (for speargun shafts!!), either safely "dry" firing, or under water. Don Paul, it seems like you mentioned using a pvc pipe and a phone book in a post awhile back. Would you mind sharing details?
Thanks.

I'm a firm believer in the " forgiveness is easier to get than permission" principle, and I've used it many, many times. You might want to look over your lease just to see if there is any language in it that would address the use of the pool, however. Being as how you've got such a good relationship with your appt mgr. he just might let the Law do his talking for him. :@ Good luck on the lap pool. let us know how it goes.

I've thought of using our club pool for testing, but we've got waaay too many old folks with too much time on their hands, so they are always looking to get their nose in someone else's business. I live on salt water but the vis at my place is never good enough to do any practicing or testing.

It takes a lot of patience since teak is a pretty slow growing tree!

It's been kind of a "one step forward, two back" kind of a process so far. Good thing I've got an ample supply of teak! The thing looks so chopped up right now it looks like it was designed by a committee. Once I've got it completed enough for some testing I'll probably strip the hardware off it and make another one from the other half of the blank I cut in half to make the first attempt.

Thanks for the kind words about the gun, Y'all. Fornutately, Ida has been downgraded to a tropical storm and we should only be looking at 60- 70 mph winds as it comes ashore tonight. No big deal- the house took a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan (134 mph) and only sustained minor damage. Everything is secured or indoors so it might actually be a good time to put a little time in on the rollergun I've been working on.

The butt pad is made from a large rubber stopper (McMaster). I cut it to 3/4" thickness and shaped it to fit the butt. Got the idea from Tin Man (where else?). They are just about the right stiffness to compress a little, but stay stiff enough to hold up. You shape them with a belt sander and fasten them to the butt with screws and/ or glue. The stoppers run from $3- $6 depending on size. The larger ones are thick enough to cut in half with a bandsaw and make two if the gun butts aren't too big.

Jeff described the bench- actually a swing. We have a resident Great Blue Heron that thinks the boathouse belongs to him, and he graciously allows us to use it! Jeff and his sister and their families had the swing custom made by a guy in Mobile as an anniversary present for their mother and me. It seemed only appropriate that it feature "Hank Heron" on the cutout.

Yup, even when "Tin Man" was "Tin Kid", it was pretty much the same way. I could tell you stories, but then, I'm sure Jeff would much prefer they be left unsaid!

Very cool. I've only been casually interested in carbon fiber hybrids, but this experiment has got me pumped! How did you end up melting the wax out? Would you use a delrin muzzle, and if so, how would you make the shape that fits inside the barrel? How would you envision the transition between the cf and the wood of the stock? I wonder how a wooden muzzle matching the wood on the handle would work? It could be epoxied into the end rather than pinned like the delrin is. I realize most guys would probably prefer the look of the delrin, but teak might look pretty good as well.

I tried the tapering technique today, just for grins. Pretty amazing. I never would have considered taking that much wood off in one pass.