That accuracy at 30 meters shows how much you have practiced! Very impressive! I have made blowgun darts from milk jugs the way you did but you have taken the skill a step further! I’m hitting subscribe!
Instead of trimming down the last bit with scissors or knife.. I use sandpaper because it makes it perfectly flat and you end up with a better fit in the pipe
I discovered that by making several vertical cuts 2-3 mm long around the rim of the cone you can make the cone a little tight in the pipe. The rim collapses a little to allow the dart into the pipe but then it expand when you blow air into the cone. This creates a good seal against the inside of the pipe.
Yes! You just reminded of what I did with paper cones back in 18years ago! Yes, just cut multiple tails, around 1mm apart. Thanks:) I need to make a short video on this! A forgotten blow dart... This doesn't work with these hdpe cones though, mines are very thick and tough!
@@LKH9Channel Maybe smearing some engine oil into the inner wall of the pipe can increase the friction of the dart. Good air and minimal duct friction increase flight quality
Hello LKH9 I enjoyed n learned lots from this 1st, video. I just subscribed. I have to shoot at night n the lit darts are just the thing i care to make, do you have a video for those lit darts? or will you make a new video showing us? Thanks again, great job
Thanks for enjoying my works, there's already a tutorial on the tracer darts. You can buy Bobber lights alternatively. I cannot get Bobber lights, so I used led arrow nocks instead.
Nice shooting ! A very interesting method with the plastic jugs. In terms of caliber adaptation, I would suggest using a thin marker pen to mark off the outer cone extension with the cone inserted inside the tube end, and cutting the unwanted extra length using sharp scissors. Using that knife to do so is an accident waiting to happen. Nail tip sharpening is best achieved by cutting off the nail head, inserting the nail in a drill chuck with the drill mounted on a drill press, and using a metal file to shape the nail tip as it rotates inside the drill. Perfect arrow-shape tips guaranteed with this approach.
Pebble Shooter?!? It's MakoPat. I am so glad to see you here. Between your ideas and LKH9 I am going to make a boat load of .625 cones and harvest some river cane for target and frog gig darts. Take care, friend. PS- I am definitely using shears and then sanding down. Hurt my frame hand/arm and just have no strength for knife work outside light kitchen prep.
@Pebble Shooter I just tried using scissors to trim it as you said, it works REAL GOOD! It just needs a tiny scissors with lots of leverage, so I used my new tiny delicate Chinese scissors. I first mark the line with my knife, then cut along the line carefully. The right tool for the right job! Big scissors don't work on delicate works. Thanks for your advice! And thanks for the concern of my safety too! Nice to see the Slingshotforum guys here :)
Thanks for the tips on caps! I use a little butane soldering gun that is a heat gun as well, and a carpenter's plum to press out cones. Very light oil on the shaft and some hot glue. After centering and hot gluing, they will come off cleanly if you want for hunting. Good work!
I just purchased a Cold Steel 5 Ft. blowgun...and have been shooting the darts that came with it. I am impressed at the accuracy, but they are quite spendy! This vid was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Do you have a tip on straightening bent bamboo shafts? How about favorite lengths for the various shaft materials? Def gonna try all of these.
13 inches length, diametre 4mm thick bamboo skewers is the best. They are dirt cheap. There's no need to straighten them, just select the most perfect ones from the bunch :) These large bamboo skewers fly the best as seen in the video. The slimmer lighter ones are only good at 5 metres, farther than that they get blown away by wind. Coldsteel is the best, I wish to have one too, but can't buy one here without getting ripped off, have to resort to my cheapass PVC.
The darts that came with ColdSteel blowgun are said to be inconsistent in different barrels, just very slight hairline thickness variation in different barrels, dependson your luck, and might result in too loose fit inside the barrel and slide down. Homemade hdpe cones can be precisely customized to fit.
awesome skills...quenching in oil is better than water. not sure which type of oil tho and the blue part of the flame is the coldest. best to place steel is just after the blue part about 5mm towards the tip. I also read somewhere that after you heat tip and shape it, then you quench in oil then re heat it and let it air cool. That hardens it but I'm not sure if that would make it brittle or not.
Thanks. A guy here tells me that these bicycle spokes are not really carbon steel. Therefore the quenching is unnecessary.. by hammering alone already work-hardened them he says. Which I believe is true, a nice experiment anyway! I think you're talking about tempering! By heating to a certain temperature after quenching. Thanks for letting me know the hottest part of the flame, yes! Carbon steel should produce sparks when abraded hard, didn't watch for that. I've shot nail darts that glided through tile flooring, left a trail of bright sparks! Now that nail dart is carbon steel!
Very, very cool!!!! 👍👍👍👍 On the subject of fixating the cones to the shafts, you should also try epoxy putty Milliput. Is very versatile, sticks fine to many materials and once dried, is very light. Cheers!!!
I've been doing something similar, but better, for over fifty years. First, I make my blow-gun from 1/2" metal conduit. I use a 5 foot piece for the blow-pipe and a 6" section for a die to form my cones. I put the 6" piece into a vice (or anything that will hold it securely). I heat the plastic much the same way this guy did, holding it over the piece of pipe. After the plastic softens, I push a plumb-bob (or whatever conical tool you're using) into the plastic, into the end of the short pipe. You twist the plumb-bob about 1/4 of a turn, it cuts the cap off even with the top of the pipe, and you're done. With a little practice, you can make 250-300 in an hour, already perfectly sized for your blow-gun. I sharpen an 8d nail, stick it through with a drop of hot glue, and it will go through a half-inch piece of plywood.
The nails were probably actually stronger after you hammered them and before heat treatment. Nails like that are not really hardenable at all. But cold hammering them work hardened them probably enough to make a difference in holding an edge
Hmm, probably yes. Thanks for the info, since the steel spec is totally unknown. I feel that the tips after heat treatment are harder, they don't deform like normal nails after hitting hard surface like concrete. Not really sure... Got to experiment more.
@@LKH9Channel YOU CAN FEEL THAT WAY, BUT YOU ARE WRONG. they are a mild steel with zinc. hammer hardened is stronger than the flame. besides that, you didnt anneal it first anyways.
@@LKH9Channel really depends on the brand/date and what not to figure that out. general rule of thumb take it to a grinder lots of sparks high in carbon. (hard steel alloy) low sparks (prolly zinc alloy)
Was wondering how to make better cones. This seems like it will work so awesome for that. I use 12 and 16 penny nails for my darts. Sometimes a little heavy but nothing an angle grinder can’t take care of
What a great video! I really like the way you made the cones. If you used a torch to heat the tip of the spoke to a bright red you could move the steel more easily. Set each aside as you heat and beat. Once you make the point by stock removal on each dart heat the tips to red. In dim light watch it turn to oxblood then quench In water. That will harden the tip a bit and allow sharpening if you were to hunt small critters. Not knowing the type of steel in the spokes this method will improve the edge holding of the tip even though it may not be the perfect method to harden and quench. I should add that once you've heated and hammered the points wide the next heat and quench can be done en mass.Best wishes.
The spokes are too thin to remain red hot when forging the tips, so I just hammered them cold. Yeah, I'm not sure of the type of steel, but after quenching, the tips do feel harder when shooting at hard targets. The sharp tip doesn't deform like common nails do! Low carbon steel can be heated to brighter colour before quenching, like what Cold Steel does to their 1095 carbon steel swords, well, they said it before. Thanks for your detailed comment, you sound passionate about this weaponry stuff! :) Edit: Yes, it is a must to watch the cherry red temperature before quenching, I purposefully do it at night.
@@LKH9Channel I understand about thin metal cooling rapidly. I've worked bearing race as a knife blade and as I was forging it thin with no plans to do any file work except for the bezel (the edge). The piece air hardened. Another much more experienced smith heard the blue tink on the anvil and growled, "Don't hit that" just in time. The anvil was also cold. I heated some plate steel short of cheery and laid it on the anvil which acted as a heat sink. With the anvil warm I was able to continue smithing moving the piece from the heat to the anvil quickly. It wasn't even cold in the shop.
I learned that fire-hardening is only applicable on wet wood. The reason is 'hardens' the wood is because it instantly dries the moisture on green wood. I need metal points!!
@@LKH9Channel I tried this a couple of years ago and I think I had too much heat. Your vid made it more clear as to what to look for as the plastic heats up. I try again I'm sure..
@@kenamaro3942 well yes, it takes practice. When the plastic becomes transparent, stop the heat immediately, work fast before it cools down and turns back to white. My tip is, always Move the flame around Non-Stop! This is another video in a few sec. ru-vid.comXYQuC1LI9bI?feature=share
Uk has lots of things made illegal, really ridiculous man. If people want to destroy each other, life will find its way. You can ban folding knives, switchblades, yet most crimes are done with common chef knives or machetes. Ridiculous law makers. Look at China, no guns, but horrifying crimes are done with chef knife, and they dual wield it..
Well thanks. I've been using pvc blowgun since 15 years ago. I just don't like those copycat videos making Grant Thompson "Laser Assisted Blowgun". They don't understand the power and precision of the blowgun as a weapon, simply film something, talk bullshit to rake in views.
Grant Thompson is great, his presentation is excellent! Everyone wants to copy his videos. I totally enjoy watching his Laser Assisted Blowgun as well, just not those copycat videos. RIP Grant.
I just bought mine instead... It just seemed like too much work. I'm not much of a DIYer unless it comes to electronicsm. You can get hunting broad head darts fairly cheap also if you don't wanna make the darts. Also you can attach a fishing reel to the bottom and add rod eyelets and attach fishing string to the darts to make a harpoon blow gun. Be sure to put a barb on the dart tho so whatever you shoot doesn't fall off... Still nicely done tho if you're into DIY stuff. 🙃
Also you can read Micheal Janich Breath of Death book, that was way back from the 80s before commercial blowguns appear. We made our own stuff back then.
HDPE, High Density Polyethylene, is the material of milk jugs. Look for that abbreviation on the bottom of your milk jugs. It should work like mine, maybe you heat it too much until it melt? Hdpe is white semi translucent if uncoloured. Bleach, shampoo bottles are also hdpe.
Does the muzzle break silence the pop when the dart exits? I've thought about putting one on mine but I don't know if it would cause the pipe to loose pressure before the dart exits.
This muzzle brake doesn't work because it's diameter is totally different from the 15mm pipe. For it to work, it has to be exaxtly the same size as the blowgun barrel. You think of the same issue as I do, but after I attach an extension barrel on into this "muzzle brake", I purposefully left an opening in the middle of the extension through the existing holes. The shot still looks powerful. Hopefully reduce the recoil, yes, blowgun has a recoil when you shoot heavy darts. The pipe wobbles! Noticed that in the camera.
I tried making HDPE cone for my alcohol rifle with steel darts but that didn't work that well the reason why is because the the cone either breaks on impact basically dis attaches from the dart or it immediately disattaches from the dart since It leaves the barrel I find cardboard cones much easier to make and more durable in terms of pressure for example the strongest dart gun I have made is a air powered one with bottle pressurized with air from bike pump if the dart can survive a shot into a wooden plank from that gun it's gonna work just fine in the alcohol one when I tested some plastic cone darts with the air gun they broke on instant but whenever I used cardboard glued cones with some tape on too they handled the pressure just fine I'll be from now on making cardboard cones cuz I find that tons easier to make than the plastic cones these ones were nightmare cuz I kept losing ton of plastic just to get one right also I'd like u to try the cardboard cone darts in ur new video I personally used cardboard from old shoe boxes
@@LKH9Channel no it's not that it's just that the connection toward the plastic with the dart is very thin and due to high pressure it slips out of the dart or the glue just fails too Its not big deal tho I can easily make thick cardboard cones from shoe boxes and use tape and glue on them wich will make them work so far I've never had a single dart made of cardboard cone fail me with glue and tape also the darts fly pretty good and accurately too with the alcohol gun unless the dart is not straight only than it will not be accurate or if the cone is glued in a bad way not symetrical way for hunting the cardboard cones work just as good as any other cone they are durable Flexibile the only issue is when they get wet if that happens than better make new cone for that dart so they only lack the ability to use on rainy days but overall I'm happy with it
I've tested them a year ago actually, the fluffy yarn darts are no good for more than 8 metres! More like FluFlu arrows in archery. Cone darts can easily travel 30 metres+
Has to do with cone shape alignment and length of the dart. This is the latest innovation ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-APGoBz_qP24.html
I got a 1 foot extension that can connect to my muzzle guard. Total length will be 5 feet :) But the place that I shoot is only 6 metres, a 5 footer will be overkill. The glowing darts are actually heavier, those bike spokes are quite light. I do feel the significant increase in power from the 5 footer!
@@LKH9Channel 5 ft blowgun, is better for open areas that you can find outdoors! The 4 ft has the advantage on less roomy space, like urban enviroments! The weather is getting better, time for some blowgun fun outside!!
And easier to carry in a car. Have fun shooting your 5 footer! :) It's like hangun vs a rifle in comparison The weather here is getting really hot, hard to film out there without filming myself soaked in sweat!
If you want durability, hdpe bottles... Paper + Tape cone is also good, but won't last as long if you shoot a lot like everyday. I used paper cones for hunting rats 18 years ago because it's cheap and disposable, because rats are filthy....Hdpe cones are reserved for fun target shooting ;) Darts choice is a matter of preference, I actually like them all! Especially the bike spoke Spearhead darts. You should try them all. Bamboo is fun to shoot and you won't lose them in the outdoor.
@@LKH9Channel I used nail darts and manage to stick it in wood over 100 feet away with duct tape and bamboo kept flying sideways lol, also is if a good idea to cut up a plastic milk carton and make a cone?
You must heat and mold the hdpe for strength and durability. My bamboo darts fly dead straight even over 100feet(30m). Maybe your bamboo skewers are not big enough or not straight. I carefully select each bamboo skewer.
Yes, steel darts is the way to go if you want destruction. Bamboo is the best for range. If only the nail can be combined with the bamboo, that will be perfect! Steel tipped bamboo dart! I'm still figuring that out
You can use a candle or oil lamp in a controlled environment(Without any wind around!). I'm working on a 3D zombie head target, so cannot show the alternative method yet.
Don't let the flame touch the plastic. Just the heat above the flame very slowly... Until you see a transparent spot, there you immediately push in the metal cone. Have to work fast before it cools again.
It takes practice, at first it's normal to make a few bad cones. Just make a few more until you get the hang of it. Keep experimenting. Enjoy blowgunning :)
