New Blog in the Works!

It's been a while since I have posted anything here. Life has been pretty busy. I'm hoping to get the Guys together again soon for some more fun projects. Until then, I have jumped into the hobby of Amateur Radio! This is a great hobby with lots of DIY projects. If you are interested, check it out!

True Ham Fashion (www.truehamfashion.com)



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YouTube Malfunction!?!

For personal reasons I haven't been able to post anything new here or on the YouTube page for a while. The big reason is that I have moved operations out of the old shop and haven't prepared a new work area yet. I'm hoping to get this corrected soon.

As for the YouTube posts. You may have already noticed that our original page was deleted as well as all the original videos. This is the result of an error on YouTube/Google's part. Everything was lost due to the fact that Youtube accounts didn't play well with Google App accounts in certain instances.

Myself and the rest of the Mod Guys are working towards rebuilding our Youtube presence under the new user name "modificationguys" and generating new content for your enjoyment.

Thank you for your patients while we get all this stuff figured out.

-Josh
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Paintball Grenades!

Paintball grenades are a huge advantage in the sport of woodsball. It's easy to get that pesky tango out of the bunker when you toss a paint spraying balloon at them. In this post we'll show you how to make a quick and easy grenade that's a fraction of the cost of the commercial version.



Our paintball grenades are 100% reusable, take only a few minutes to make, and cost only around $.50 per grenade in materials. That sure beats the pants off the retail grenades that sell for $8 to $10 a piece. Check out the how-to video or jump down below for full details.



Supplies:

• 1/4" Latex tubing (5 inches per grenade)
• 4" Cable ties (3 per grenade)
• Fishing Line (10 to 12 inches per grenade)
• Wire Coat Hanger or similar wire (for arming pin)

Tools you'll probably need:

• Wire cutters
• Needle nose pliers
• Diagonal cutters

Assembly instructions:

1. Cut a 5 inch section of latex tubing. Tubing can be cut using almost anything sharp, we like using diagonal cutters. 
2. Seal the bottom of the grenade and add the carrying loop. Start off by loosely "ratcheting" two cable ties to one or two clicks. Tie one end of the 10 to 12 inch piece of fishing line to a cable tie. Pinch the very bottom of the latex tubing into a small fold with one of the ties stuck into the fold. Use the second tie that has the fishing line attached and secure the fold tightly while leaving the carrying loop tie loose.
3. Prepare the top of the grenade with the release ring. Fold the top portion of the latex tube in half and ratchet a cable tie just barely tight enough to hold the latex folded together. The tie should be loose enough to slide off with a little force, but tight enough it will not fall off. 
4. Create the release pin. Take a short piece of wire (about the thickness of a coat hanger) and cut a section off roughly and inch in length. You can use needle nose pliers to bend one end of the wire over to add a slight grip to pull the pin out. Next slide the pin in just above the release ring in the fold. 
5. Fill the grenade. Take the pin and release ring off and use a filling device (check out ours) to fill the grenade to desired level. Note that the more liquid you put into a grenade the less stable it becomes and overall performance can degrade. It's best to play around with fill levels and find the sweet spot. Once the grenade is filled, fold the top of the tubing, place the release ring over the fold and stick the pin into the fold just above the release ring. Do not allow the release ring to slide up against the pin, it could allow the fluid to leak or spray out. 
6. Find some cowering opposition and try out your new toy!

Overview:
This is a very simple grenade design. In fact it's pretty much the same thing you will go out and spend ~$10 to buy. The spray pattern in my opinion is quite good and will be very useful if thrown to the side of a bunker.

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Paint Grenade Fill Station

In the world of scenario paintball/woodsball, having the tactical advantage is key. The ability to take out the opposition while they are behind cover or in a bunker is one of the ultimate goals when in a sticky situation. The best tool to use in such a situation is the grenade. Well, paint grenade in this case. In this post we'll show you how to create a simple fill station that will make creating paintball grenades easy.

Check out our videos or you can read the full process below.






List of supplies:

• 2" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe
• 4" PVC Pipe
• 2" to 4" PVC reducer
• 2" PVC Cap
• 2" PVC Test Plug
• 7 feet of 3/4" Clear Plastic hose
• 3x 1/4" Nylon Barb couplers
• 1/4" Brass Barb adapter
• 1/4" Brass T adapter
• 1/4" Brass Coupler
• 1/4" Pressure Release Valve (150PSI)
• 1/4" Ball Valve
• 1/4" Quick Connect fitting
• Thread Tape
• PVC Cleaner/Primer and Adhesive
• Plumbers Putty/Adhesive 
• Zip Ties

Tools you will probably need:

• Drill with drill bits
• Hacksaw
• Utility Knife
• Diagonal Cutters
• Adjustable wrench

Assembly Procedure:

1. Cut a section of 2" PVC to use as the reservoir. We used a section roughly 3 feet in length and the size really just depends on how many fills you wish to perform before needing to refill the system. 
2. Drill the holes for the air intake and fluid release barbs. Drill one hole two inches from the top of the reservoir and one in the center of the bottom 2" cap. 
3. Cut the two barbs that will be fitted to the reservoir. Be sure to cut them next to the thicker solid center and discard the half that is no longer attached to the center section.
4. Use the plumbers adhesive to attach the barbs to the reservoir. Use your finger and apply a dab of adhesive around the top (thicker part) of the barb and press firmly from the inside of the reservoir to adhere and seal the barb. Repeat the process with the hole in the bottom cap. Allow this adhesive to dry for at least 6 hours before attaching any hoses and let dry for 24 hours before actually using the system. 
5. Use a rotary tool or file to remove the flange from the inside of the 4" to 2" reducer so that the 2" pipe can slide all the way through the reducer.
6. Slide the reservoir tube through the 2" to 4" reducer so that the reducer makes a stand for the device. 
7. Use the PVC Cleaner/Primer to clean the bottom of the reservoir tube and the inside of the bottom cap. Allow cleaner to dry for a few seconds. Then apply the PVC adhesive to both the reservoir and cap where they have been cleaned. Press cap onto the bottom of the reservoir firmly and in a twisting motion to attach the cap.
8. Cut a short section of 4" pvc pipe to use as a riser for the base. Drill a hole large enough to run the 3/4" tubing through the riser and press the riser up into the reducer. The station should now be free standing and the bottom barb should not be touching the ground. 
9. Build the air-in mechanism.Using thread tape, wrap the threads on the brass barb adapter, coupler, T adapter, and quick connect air fitting. Screw all components together as shown with the valve and air fitting on the right of the T adapter, barb to the left, and release valve at the top. Tighten with a wrench. 
10. Connect the air-in mechanism with a three foot section of 3/4" tube using the barb adapters. The tube should fit fairly tight. Run the remainder of the hose through the hole in the base and plug into the bottom of the reservoir. Then insert the last barb fitting into the end as to have something to fill grenades. For good measure use a couple of zip ties and secure the fill tube to the reservoir so that the tube is higher than the maximum fill level. 

Overview:
The fill station works wonderfully. It is currently a two person operation but it's a lot easier than most of the previous methods we've seen. Someone will have to control the fill station while the other handles the fill of the grenade. Keep an eye for future posts on how to make the grenades, fill paint, and how to actually use them effectively. 
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ARTiGO Pico ATX Setup

A while back my dad got a nice LCD television for Christmas and immediately wanted a way to view pictures, play music, and surf the web from the couch. Of course The TV is mounted on the wall and he didn't want any wires showing or a loud screaming computer sitting around. Enter the ARTiGO A1000 builder kit.

ARTiGO A1000 in the palm of my hand.

Since dad wanted a full functional computer connected to his TV but still needed it hidden, it was off to search for a viable solution. After looking at all the new small form factor designs, I finally found the the Pico-ITX was actually small enough to fit behind an LCD with a standard wall mount.

EPIA Pico-ATX Motherboard

I was surprised when I opened the box. The A1000 builder kit from VIA comes with everything you need besides your storage device and RAM. However, the distributor I bought my kit from included 1GB of RAM. That was a plus. The main board was tiny, who would have thought you could squeeze everything onto such a small board. If you look at the top you can see the one small heat-sink fan and a bunch of pins where you connect all the components.

Bottom of Motherboard.

The bottom of the main board is where you throw in the single SODIMM module. I do wish it would support a little more than 1GB of ram, but hey I'm not complaining at this size.

Small Enclosure

The little enclosure that came with the kit is fairly pleasing to the eye. It has some basic connections for USB and simple audio. The motherboard has a VGA and network connection built on and it also supports DVI and multi channel audio though the case doesn't have quite that much room.

20GB 2.5" IDE Hard Drive

I had a spare 20GB 2.5" IDE hard drive I decided to use with the enclosure. The drive sits just under the main-board in the enclosure and connects with a little riser that came in the kit. Even though I used an IDE, the board does support SATA too.

All components installed.

All the components fit snugly in the 5.9"x4.3"x1.8" enclosure and is about the same length as my screwdriver. I do like the fact it has the ability to run directly off DC power, just in case I need to use one as a carPC. In the picture above you can see the mainboard with all the case connections made and the DC power supply to the right.

Everything in the kit.

Overall the kit is a really good deal. It fits behind the LCD TV and connects via VGA and simple audio. I loaded Windows XP off a USB drive and the system seems to run smoothly. It does struggle with some of the higher definition video formats and can stutter audio in certain situations. I was lucky enough to have run a network connection when the TV was mounted, so there wasn't a need for trying to wirelessly connect it. But, you could easily use a USB wireless adapter or VIA does sell a wireless kit to plug right on to the motherboard. One other thing I wish VIA included was on-board bluetooth support. I like using bluetooth keyboards with my media computers and had to stick with using a USB adapter for that. Also, as far as noise goes, the system isn't too loud. The loudest part is the old hard drive I used, had I opted for a solid state type storage device, it would probably be quite silent.

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