7¼ inch barrel

[thunderpig]

Once again I was bored today and decided to make something.

I decided to cut down a stock spyder barrel. The barrel started out at 9½ in. and was cut down to 7¼ in..

I know magnus did something like this a while back and he cut his at 6 in. 6 was a little to short for me, thats why I decided to go with 7¼ .;)

Anywho, heres how it went......

I first made a mark of where I thought I should cut it. Then I put a rag around it and put it in the vise.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/a58e64d3.jpg


I then put the pipe cutter on it and tightened it down.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/cca251f9.jpg
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/0998a77d.jpg

The way the pipe is cut is by twisting the knob on the end to apply pressure from the cutting wheel to the pipe. Then by rolling it around the pipe, it creates a small indentation all around the pipe. After every three to four revolutions around the pipe, you tighten up the knob to apply more pressure, which keeps cutting the pipe.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/0dc46cf8.jpg

Anyway, after using the pipe cutter for a while, the end of the barrel eventually comes off.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/87d1ff6b.jpg

(continued in next post)

[thunderpig]

The end of the freshly cut barrel was pretty rough. So I used a variation of files to smooth it out.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/6ec6964f.jpg

Here's what it looked like after I was done filing. It had a some scratches on it so I decided to spruce it up a little.;)
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/929bfe17.jpg



Here's what I did to make it look a little better....

I used Easy Off oven cleaner to strip off the anodizing finish, to get to the raw aluminum.

I masked the threads and the ends of the barrel so no Easy Off would get into it. The easy off stuff is really strong, so I didnt wan't to take any chances of it messing with the threads.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/bf69902a.jpg

I then put the barrel in a coffe can and sprayed some of the Easy Off onto it, and let it sit for a few minutes.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/237007ce.jpg

After I let it sit, I wiped off the Easy Off in a rag and dipped the barrel in some water. I dipped it in the water to get off any cleaner/residue that may still be on the barrel.

After it was dry, I took the masking tape off and went over the barrel with a scratch pad. It cleared up most of the scratches/small knicks that were there.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/07c364cc.jpg

(continued in next post)

[thunderpig]

After I'd stripped the finish and went over it with a scratch pad, I finished it up with some Mother's Mag polish.

Here's what the final product looks like on my spyder:
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/1fe91362.jpg

http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/58d7e451.jpg


I haven't had a chance to test out it's performance yet, but I think I will tomorrow. All in all i think it looks good, but whether or not it's performance will be any better, is still up in the air.:)

[Spinach]

Sell it to some idiot for 30 bucks as a weapon.
I almost had this guy today I was selling this kid a victor for 70 and then this *** had to open his big mouth and say that they where only 50! arr

[andrew 2589]

looks like it turned out pretty nice

[thunderpig]

Sell it to some idiot for 30 bucks as a weapon.
I almost had this guy today I was selling this kid a victor for 70 and then this *** had to open his big mouth and say that they where only 50! arr


hmmm... Interesting idea!;)

Actually, I sold a used victor to a kid in my class for $85.:eek:

[Cx Threepio]

About how much did all the materials cost you?

[thunderpig]

Originally posted by Cx Threepio
About how much did all the materials cost you?

They didn't cost me anything. It was all stuff that we had laying around.;)

But if you were to buy all of this stuff new, I'm thinking around $10-$12? I'm not real sure on that price.

[moiht]

:eek: :eek: :eek: so this is what you did to my barrel?!?! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[thunderpig]

Nahhhh I did this yesterday. I got your barrel today.;)

Plus, this was a 9 1/2in. barrel, Your's was a 12".;)

[f2f4]

Nice job, thunderpig! I did this to my stock barrel some time ago, and it worked really well. Right now my barrel is at 6.5 in, but I plan to cut it down to as little as 4.

[thunderpig]

I'm thinking about cutting it again to about 6-6½ sometime. But I think I'll stick with it this way for now.

Nice job on your's too f2f4. How did you cut your's?

I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to do 4 in. though. :eek: There just wouldn't be enough barrel there.

[f2f4]

Originally posted by thunderpig
Nice job on your's too f2f4. How did you cut your's?


I cut mine exactly like you did! :P



Originally posted by thunderpig
I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to do 4 in. though. There just wouldn't be enough barrel there.


Good point. The main purpose of cutting it down that much is not so much for effeicency (or accuracy), but just to have a nice "snub" barrel. I don't know about you, but I can work a hard bunker (not an inflated one, obviously, since with those longer IS better) much better with a shorter barrel, since it does not get in the way.

An added benefit: That barrel is as loud as a...well, something loud anyway...which is always good to intimidate newbies! :tup: :D

BTW - thunderpig, do you like my gold striping on my marker (EDIT: see pic in next post)? Or do you think I should just take it off?

[f2f4]

Sorry to double-post, but in the last post by me I meant to attach this pic...

[thunderpig]

I like the gold stripping!:D It looks a bit odd with the green but other than that its cool!

Yeah, with the shorter barrel I find it much more compact than before. I find it much easier to fit behind bunkers and what-not, now.

[diablo0402]

Now all you need is porting:D . That's what I did with my stock. It looks bad but it is so quiet and it still works! I think mine is about as quiet as my All American too. I also wanted to make it smaller but I don't have the proper tool. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera that I can hook up to my computer to show you guys.

Oh wait could I just cut it with a table saw? I don't know if I'd do that though because it took me a long time just to drill the holes with a regular drill

[thunderpig]

Originally posted by diablo0402
Now all you need is porting:D . That's what I did with my stock. It looks bad but it is so quiet and it still works! I think mine is about as quiet as my All American too. I also wanted to make it smaller but I don't have the proper tool. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera that I can hook up to my computer to show you guys.

Hmm... Porting.

I hadn't thought too much about porting yet. I'd have to drill really really slow to keep the burrs down. It would be a pain to get rid of them on the inside of the barrel. It sounds like a perfect challenge for me!:D I think I'll work on that tomorrow.;)

What do you think the size of the holes should be for the porting?

[diablo0402]

Just find a bit about the right size as regular porting and drill away, that's what I did. My bit was actually a little bigger because I couldn't find a small enough piece. Be careful not to smush to barrel on the clamp because I kinda did that. The threading got kind of messed up and it doesn't really screw in all the way but it stays in and shoots fine. I didn't notice anything different. I plan on using it during a game soon.

It probably took me 2 hours because I drilled very slowly. You could probably do it in less time.

[thunderpig]

Well I decided to port it tonight. It turned out descent. Here's how it went....

I marked lines on the barrel with a marker. These lines are where the holes for the porting will go.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/76b54693.jpg

I then put a ruler up against it and put and made a mark 2 in. from the end of the barrel. That's where my porting will end.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/ccbc2fff.jpg

After I had that done, I had to decide how far apart I wanted my holes. I decided on ¼ in. apart. On one of the lines I made, I measured along every ¼ in., starting at ½ in. and ending at the 2in. line I made.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/d1412d41.jpg

Then on the other line I made, I measured along every ¼ in. again, starting at ¼ in. and ending at 1¾ in.


After I had marked the holes, I had to find a drill bit that looked like a nice size. I looked through our bit index and found a 7/64" bit. (it's the one thats hanging out)
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/55bfe350.jpg

I then chucked it into the drill press and began drilling the holes on the marks that I had made earlier.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/ab5dfdb6.jpg

(Continued in next post)

[thunderpig]

After I drilled the holes, There were some burrs and rough spots on the inside of the barrel and on the outside. So I filed them off the best I could.

This is what it looked like after I had filed on the outside of it.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/59b9193a.jpg


This is what it looked like after I had taken a scratch pad over it. It needs to be polished now.
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/ec9adf98.jpg

The porting process took me about an hour and a half to do. I haven't tested it out with the porting yet, so I don't know if I need to file more off of the holes in the barrel. That is in the works for tomorrow. ;)

[Speedballer109]

Now polish it! Looks good you Silly Sally.:D

[thunderpig]

Well, I took it out and put about 50 balls through it. None of them chopped or anything like that, so that means I got the porting holes filed down correctly!

After that I polished it. Here's some pics....
http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/DCP_0108.jpg

http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/4d8d0401.jpg

[Speedballer109]

Sexy~!~


She bang she bag, she stings like a bee......

[f2f4]

Wow...nice job thunderpig! :tup:

I would have ported mine as well, but the only drill I have is a dremel tool and one drill bit (a cheap drill bit at that, so it propably would not handle metal too well... :| ).

But good job anyway! :)

[thunderpig]

Thanks guys!:D

I'll keep you posted if I change anything else.;)

[AJcool]

I like it, i might try something like this just for fun on my old stock barrel, no need for it now. Or i could just take off the front of my ultralite, lol

[jdubau55]

i did this with my stock piranha barrel. cut it down to like 7-8 inches. i just left like 4 porting holes in it from stock. i way to get burrs off the inside that i found that works well is a dremel tool with a ball point engraving bit in it. the ball head is very small and you can just spot smooth it out. works nicely. i also took some mothers polish, and a 12 gauge shot gun swab on the end of a cleaning rod in my drill to make the inside like a mirror. it looks awesome on my marker but the performance is lacking. i guss if you had a honing tool where you could hone it out to a precise diameter it might work better.

[taylorjames]

Once again thunderpig, you have inspired me. Although I use my stock spyder barrel, I found the perfect test subject, a stock cocker barrel....:eek: this is going to be sweet. Nice work.

[thunderpig]

Originally posted by taylorjames
Once again thunderpig, you have inspired me. Although I use my stock spyder barrel, I found the perfect test subject, a stock cocker barrel....:eek: this is going to be sweet. Nice work.

Yay! I'm finally an inspiration to someone!:cool:

I want to see some pics of your's when you're done!;)

[thunderpig]

Here is an updated pic. I didn't have one of it on my marker before;)

http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v36/thunderpig/4b1889d0.jpg

[bildo]

nice man, i might havta do that to a barrel thats laying around sometime

[pickles8806]

Hey, I did this to my stock barrel off my dragunfly. Worked so well. Ported it, filed it, and smoothed it out with some six hundred grit sand paper. It actually works well too. Now I've got a speedball barrel. Props to thunderpig. Great thing to do with an old stock barrel that's lying around.

[bildo]

really man? take some pics, im diein to see how it looks shorten.. since i have a dragunfly myself. sounds like a good idea.. ill probably practice up cuttin them down by first shortenin the 5 or so stock barrels i have laying around..

[pickles8806]

At the moment I can't take any pics. I might be able to in a week or so, I can try and get a hold of my friend's digital camera. But, I can give you some good directions to make it look good. Here they are. Well the dragunfly stock barrel is great for this mod, because you can make it look like the barrel came that short. The way you acheive this is to cut it at the end of where the barrel raises in the middle (it looks like a bumb all the way around the middle) and it's about 2 inches long and has indented sections in it. Well I cut the barrel at the end of this section with a pipe cutter. After you're done cutting it should look pretty much just like the original barrel tip, except now the barrel is shorter. Now, I measured out and ported holes in the indented sections (four in each, that's 32 holes). Note: be careful when drilling your porting holes, do not hit the other side of the barrel with the drill bit when drilling through. My remedy to this was sticking a piece of wood inside the barrel on the opposite side of where I was drilling so the drill bit hit the wood, not the barrel. The wood did not scratch or damage the barrel. Remember, you want to do as little damage to the inside as possible because you want your paint flying as straight as possible. I then used a fine toothed circular file to create a bevelled edge on the inside of the barrel. I then used 600 grit sand paper to smooth out the bevelled edge and the ends of the porting holes on the inside of the barrel. I did the same with the outside, smoothed the outsides of the porting holes, and outer edge (I did not bevel the outside edge or use a file on it). Polish, dry, and your done. A perfect looking shortened barrel. I'm not trying to take credit or repeat what thunderpig said, just trying to give good directions for this particular barrel, because it is unique in its design. Hope this helps.

[thunderpig]

Sounds awesome pickles!

Whenever you get pics, post them as quick as you can! I wan to see it.;)