A new minigun idea

[litefire1546]

I was thinking, could i use 6 high-powered spring units to make a minigun?

 

the bolt/piston would have a strong pin out the side. as it spins the pin would slide through a helical groove, which would force it back. as it reaches a full rev, it would be fully cocked back. at this point it would be loaded. finally, the track would allow the pin to release, firing the gun.

 

anyone think it might work? might need a pretty good motor... but it's a fairly simple idea, no gas valves to mate with spinning barrels or anything like that.

 

~~Brian

 

EDIT: Brian is Litefire 1456's brother, not litefire himself

[zentaurus]

sound concept. but some critical details needed to make it work: really sturdy motor; anchoring the track drum; trigger/rotation synch; sealing at hop/cylinder interface; & maybe some others i have not yet considered

[TDS]

that is exactly how a classic all-electric minigun worked

 

hard part was getting the bb's to feed

[Tecro]

Shouldn't be too difficult. Just make sure your motor can turn the barrel assembly at over 500 RotationsPM and 2000 RoundsPM, or something similar, without using too much energy.

 

BB feeding could be a slight problem. But if you having a housing for the rear end of the barrels, it can have a hole at the base of each barrel, and a mag would feed straight into it. The BBs would be blocked from going through until a barrel end and hole swings around.

[Meathead316]

isnt that how real miniguns work? as the barrels spin each firing pin is pulled bakc then released. im thinking for this to work you are gonna need one hell of a strong motor, and getting all of the moving parts to move at the correct timing will mean everything has to be 110% dead accurate, and with so many moving parts and all of them so tiny i think its a bit of a tall order. but give it a go, you'll never know unless you try. just be prepared to swear at your minigun wen it doesnt do what u want it to do, and pour countless hours... and pounds into it but wen u finally get it done (or almost in my cae) then them hours and hours and all that money seems worth it

 

good luck to ya!

[litefire1546]

oh cool, didn't know that's how the real ones worked.

 

you learn something new everyday. but often it's not at school

[Tecro]

A strong motor? Not too strong...it's all relative, I guess. You obviously can't put a Systema Magnum in there, but as motors go, you don't need an insanely powerful one. Somebody's actually been doing a Nerf one, but using HPA and an air tool.

 

Yes, there will need to be a lot of precise fittings, but it's not like you'll need insane accuracy. Poor accuracy is probably a good thing for something like this if you need suppressive fire.

[litefire1546]

right, i'm not looking for an insanely powerful device (if i ever build it at all... maybe after AP tests with my friend Gar) just having a minigun would be hellasweet.

 

and you're right tecro, a little bit of inaccuracy is way more fun for suppressive fire. that's all this thing would be good for anyway. and to scare people when you show up at games.

 

anyone have any ideas for bb feeding? i haven't done too much research (read: none), so any pointers towards either good ideas or good websites would be awesome.

[horzathesecound]

I mentioned this idea in Meatheads minigun thread a while ago.

 

I was planning on using a half horse power motor i've got knocking about in my workshop and connectiong it up to begin with, allthough i doubt you would need that much power.

 

As for the feed i was thinking a plate which is attached to the motor which spins at a high fps, bbs are gravity fed onto this plate, and then centrefugal force pushes the bbs to the edge. Thus plate then has holes in, which the bbs go through into the springers.

[litefire1546]

nice, could you perhaps provide a quick sketch of how the loading plate would look?

 

anyone have any idea about how to go about making the main body (with the helical groove for the cocking mechanism in it)? could that be machined easily?

 

~~Brian

[Tecro]

I would just use a tube of PVC with something inside as the groove. If you can find and pay for Schedule 40 2.5" PVC, I'd get that. Cut a strip in the shape of the ridge and glue it to the inside of Schedule 80 3" PVC - also expensive.

 

If you're machining something, I'd use CAD and create anything you want to.

[Tecro]

I would just use a tube of PVC with something inside as the groove. If you can find and pay for Schedule 40 2.5" PVC, I'd get that. Cut a strip in the shape of the ridge and glue it to the inside of Schedule 80 3" PVC - also expensive.

 

If you're machining something, I'd use CAD and create anything you want to.

[Tecro]

Agh! Lost the post!

 

Anyway, I'd have to say a short bit of 2.5" PVC glued inside 3" Schedule 40 PVC, with the 2.5" cut into a ridge, would do. Both are hard to find and perhaps expensive, though. They'll fit well at least.

 

EDIT: Oh, even worse, a triple post...didn't lose it after all...could somebody delete these posts?

[litefire1546]

Anybody got any ideas about a loading mechanism (i think everyone on arnie's has come up with a scheme to do this)? Check out the fancy gear somewhere in meathead's thread (there's a link). Anybody know how the real ones load?

 

EDIT: That link is on page 3 of meathead's post. It's got a picture of the "feed plate" but i can't figure out how it works.

[Tecro]

Hmm...

 

Looks like the box mag feeds into the side of the feedplate. As the feedplate turns, the next BB goes into the groove and is guide down towards the hold for the barrel.

 

I can't tell how it seals or how the BB gets pushed into a part of the barrel that isn't open on the side.

[Lord Blackgoat]

Your engine should have a good torque, as when you begin to fire it will have to cock at least one spring at really low RPM. An alternative would be a way of cocking all the springs before getting the motor spinning, and wait a bit before engaging the piston release mechanism. Then the motor wouldn't need to be that powerful.

[AirsoftNY]

Your idea of 6 springloaded cylinders is how the Toytec M134 minigun works. Six individual cylinders, each sort of resembling the bolt of a spring sniper rifle, the bolt is pulled back via a cam as the entire assembly turns, and is released and fired at roughly the 12 o'clock position. It's a good system but does require a high torque motor to run, as well as a heavy sealed lead acid battery and transformer/fuse box.

 

Here are some pics of the Toytec I own:

 

http://www.pbase.com/airsoftny/airsoft