I have a working proof of concept for the reloading mechanism. The video shows me loading a few balls into the tray, simulating its action during play, then rotating it to vertical and lifting the balls up to load them back into the launcher. There are still some things to smooth out with it, though.
Month: October 2018
Inside cuts
I cut out the slot for the reloading handle to travel in tonight. This handle will rotate the ball-catching tray (this needs a better name) up from near-horizontal to vertical, at which point the player will slide it up to the top, Sliding it up to the top will run all of the balls back into the magazine to prepare for another round of play.
I did this by cutting 1/4″ holes on either end of the slot, removing the blade from the scroll saw, putting the blade through one of the holes, then reattaching the blade to the saw.
Anyway, here’s a picture:
Getting my bearings
I made a few key improvements to the bearing launcher/gun tonight:
- Added a ramp to guide the balls to the front of the launcher
- Switched to a slightly (1/32″) larger brass tube
- Filed a groove into the trigger for the rubber band to rest in
These changes dramatically increased the reliability of the launcher. I recorded a couple videos, one just showing the new features and another showing a “fast as you can pull the trigger” speed test.