Eclipse 40mm semi-auto

[surfbum]

well there goes the contest!

[iknowmy3tables]

wow wow wow the eclipse is in the contest now, oh crap
is it even considered a homemade, if you have such fine tools at home to make something this fine then you must live in a foundry

[PCGUY]

Let me get this straight here, is this built by a company/funded by a company or what?

[chaos]

wow wow wow the eclipse is in the contest now, oh crap

**chaos takes S400 to the shed....hacks at it wildly with a four inch grinder**
**"stupid thing why aren't you better than the eclipse??!!!"**

nice gun man ya should be proud.

i wont say nothing bout the contest part.

peace
chaos

[meatballs]

That is a truly incredible piece of work. Looks professionally made, like the sort of thing you would buy. Incredible performance, love everything about that gun. How much did that cost you?

[Solar]

ok, well... I designed the gun myself and made a lot of the parts by hand before having them coded in for CNC production. I've made changes after testing and based on suggestions from friends. I have a maxnc CNC machine that made a lot of this possible. That and a lot of favors from friends who had other metal working toys. As far as development cost goes... well... just the last prototype alone ran a few thousand dollars. This contest is to be my last foray as an amateur builder and from now on I will be considered a professional since I will be selling these. Like I said before, the contest is a really cool idea and I waited to enter it so as not to discourage others from posting. Hopefully people will like what they see and realize some of the safety and design features to incorporate into their own designs. If I sell a few of these that's ok too.

If I won the contest I would probably just turn the money back into the Sysop for advertising banners.

I was also expecting IMG-Q to show off his MK-19 style cannon, but I guess it's not ready for primetime yet. It sounds like the ROF on that baby will be insane, but I'm not sure if it is something that is man portable.

[PCGUY]

Thing is, if it's mainly for a company or company funded I really rather not have it in the contest. I mean I LOVE this, and I LOVE to have it here, but being backed by a company makes things kind of unfair to at home builders.

I just couldn't see myself paying contest money out of pocket just to go to a company.

[paaiyan]

I know that I'm not the deciding factor by any means, and I also love the cannon, but I have to agree with pcguy. Despite the fact that it is a grat piece of engineering, I think it's unfair to the do-it-yourselfers at home.

[sjog]

Pros vs do it your selfers

[Solar]

That's ok. I do want to point out that I designed paid for this completely out of pocket and wasn't backed by someone. This launcher represents years of hard work and setbacks. I was just curious what people would think and how it would do in the contest. I'll resign to be fair, but I do think I followed all the rules. I even posted my entry before I was officially taking orders. It was number 50 at that!

Oh, and I'm going to vote for the RevoSemi since it is the only other launcher I have ever seen someone make using a cam system like the Eclipse does.

-Rory

[sjog]

Don't get me wrong, stay with it. We are all lumped together, this is a data base and this is a chance to see what others have in mind. Some are more polished than others but we are sharing ideas. We all benefit

[hunter1992]

Hey a superhero fighting a man wouldn't be fair....

the eclipse against other cannons, not fair....
the eclipse is the best gun ever!!!

[keep_it_real]

Enough disputing... I have some questions.

How did you make a seal between the exhaust and the cartridges and then the cartridges and the barrel. This was one of my biggest problems with the RevoSemi. Originally, I was going to let each cartridge move freely so when the wooden piston hit the cartridge, the cartridge would also move forward against the barrel sealing it on both sides. Unfortunately, the rotating cam isn't accurate enough to put each cartridge EXACTLY inline with the barrel. I was using a drill press to make my rotating cam so it's obviously not going to be exact as a cnc router.

The pneumatically driven cam is awesome. I think I get how it works, tell me if this is right. When you press the trigger, pressure builds up on both the firing piston and the cam turning piston. The cam piston moves before the firing piston which rotates the cartridges and then the firing piston fires. The cam piston is spring loaded so it moves back into position.

Anyway, exceptional job on completion. I think you should stay in the competition. Anyone who doesn't think its fair just won't vote.

[Solar]

The metal cam provides all the accuracy needed. The receiver is tapered and the rear plate has a lip that helps create somewhat of a firing bolt across the back when the shot is fired. The disks are only there to provide any possible ammo spillage and in the semi-auto config they only place light pressure until firing. If you notice the location of the drive pistons, they are also set up to act as a breech sealing mechanism if needed by placing a small rubber bumper on the front of the plate that holds the pin. This is most useful with heavier rounds that could overcome the spring force via *every action has an equal and opposite reaction*.

You almost have the operation down. The drive pistons extend, compressing springs, then the valve piston is fired, loses air, the springs in the drive pistons retract, then the cam is rotated. Maybe now you can understand the logic as to why I didn't use the pattern like your cam that travels 30 degrees on each stroke.

[Billy Bob]

That gun is one of the BEST i ever saw

Very good work Solar !