How to make Darts
Sept 17 2000
I don't yet have any pics of my tooling to make cast nose cones from autobody filler (Bondo) but I will soon.
List of matierials needed to make darts
3/4 cpvc pipe (the yellow stuff)
Autobody filler (bondo)
1" blade drillbit
A chunk of hardwood
Some flat plastic for fins
Making the reamer
The reamer is the part that will cut the mold for the nose cone to be cast in. It is made from a 1" blade drillbit. First you will have to measure the outside diameter of the pipe you are using for the body of the dart (I use 3/4 cpvc, but it could be scaled up or down). Record you're measurement and mark it on the drillbit, centered of course. Then grind the drillbit down to match the contour of what you want your nose cone to look like, I left the point there to help start the drilling process, but it isn't necessary if you have a drill press. Now you have a reamer to cut the mold for the nose cone.
Making the mold
Take you're reamer and chuck it into a drill and drill it into a piece of hardwood (hardwood isn't really necessary it just makes a better mold). Don't drill all the way through, just enough to make the shape of the reamer and to support the dart body (pipe).
Casting the nose cone
Now for the messy part. Mix up some body filler as per the instructions on the can. Grease the inside of the mold with whatever you have, vaseline, wheel bearing grease, butter, but not too much just a thin film. Now scuff the inside of the pipe with some coarse sandpaper, fill the mold with the mixed body filler and press the pipe into the mold, now once it is dried it can be removed from the mold and you have a nose cone casted onto your dart body. A little bit of sanding and it's almost done
Making and attaching the fins
The fins I use are cut from empty antifreeze bottles. I will cut four slots spaced at 90 degrees from each other in the bottom of the dart body for the fins to slip into. The fins are just two pieces of plastic with a slot cut half way up the middle for them to interlock together. Once they are sliped into the body, hot glue them in place. Now it's ready to fire.
Firing the Dart from an air cannon
Now here's the fun part. Just load the dart on top of what ever fits the bore of your cannon well, for a 3" barrel I found that if you take a 20 oz pop bottle and cut the botton off of it you can set the dart in the cup and load it. I have found that if you use some lead shot and weight the dart towards the nose cone, they usually fly better, so just expermemt with what you have, try different lengths of pipe or even different fin designs.