A re-work of a Nerf Vulcan mini-gun by adding spinning barrels. Shot on a Panasonic SD5 and edited in FCE4.
Instructions on building this mini-gun:
I cut the barrel off of the Nerf Vulcan with a bandsaw, leaving the last 2 5/8" of it and the ridge above it. At that point I separated the gun itself into its two halves by removing the many screws, being careful to note how it all has to go back together. Next, I created the 6 barrel assembly by cutting one length of PVC ½" I.D. tubing into 6 equal lengths at 8 ¼". I cut one additional piece at 7 to act as a sleeve to cover the center rod, or axel that the barrels turn on. I then cut 4 4" dia. disks out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) on a bandsaw, 3* out of ½" and 1 out of ¼", which are the barrel supports. I stacked 2 of the ½" disks, with the ¼" one in the center and using masking tape, I taped them all together. Using a protractor and compass, I laid out the barrel pattern and with a drill-press I drilled the 6 7/8" dia. holes with a paddle bit for the barrels and one ¼" hole in the center of each for the ¼" dia. threaded rod, which spins the thing. I counter-sank both end pieces slightly so the sleeve covering the threaded rod would stay in the center. I put it all together, using a nut at each end of the rod to pull end pieces against the center sleeve, aligned the barrels and secured them with drywall screws. I painted the barrel assembly, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to reach everything once I got it together. In order to hold the barrel assembly, and attach it to the gun, I took a piece of 7/8" wide x 1/8" steel flat stock (Home Depot), bent it into a J shape large enough to reach both ends and drilled holes just a little larger than the threaded rod. I used skateboard replacement wheel bearings at end of the rod for the assembly to spin on. I used the extra 4" disk(*) I cut earlier, counter-sunk a whole big enough to hold the skateboard bearing and fit it in behind the plastic, cutting away what I needed to make it fit. The motor that comes with the Vulcan wouldn't rotate the barrel assembly fast enough for me, so I removed it, and used an old 9v motor out of a battery operated drill that I no longer used. I cut and fit the electric motor into place, wired in series with the trigger switch and added a power adapter plug from Radio Shack, along with the purchase of a 9v Power Adapter. I used a piece of rubber tubing to make the flexible connection between the motors drive-shaft to the threaded rod. I also created a piece of ½" MDF, looking like the figure 8, at the barrel to hold & hide the other skateboard bearing, this was locked off with a locking nut. There was a lot of cutting & fitting to make it all work.
