The Ballzooka is Awesome.
If there was some way of making homemade balls, I think this Nerf ball shooter
would be Extremely Awesome. The Balls that Hasbro currently produces are of green in color and are
therefore less suited for providing the needed contrast with the different
colors of the outdoor environment. Translation: Grass is green, balls are too,
This is just a maintenance thread about properly caring for your aging classic, the Ballzooka.
These are internals of the Ballzooka.
I didn’t want to screw up too much about this ball shooter. It works pretty
good, and I didn’t want to break it (Seeing as I bought it with all 15 original balls at a Garage sale for 3 bucks)
Here is a picture of the revolving turret. Pretty bulky. The white tubular barrel fits into those holes with x’s in them. Do you the x’s?
That’s what provides the seal.
See the o-ring on the end of this thing? That fits into each hole with the
x in it. I assume the x might be some kind of extra air restrictor but I
didn’t want to fool around with anything that might affect that precious
seal between white thing and orange thing. =)
Alright next step. Take out the green handle out of the above housing.
Like so. Contary to popular belief, there are not black rubber seals here. The air seal
is formed between the ball tube and the front of the white thing with the o-ring.
Do you notice all of that gray stuff on the plunger head? That’s assorted dust
particles, various other hairs, and strangely enough yellow fuzz like foam (from the yellow balls).
All that clogs up your Ballzooka and impairs performance. Gross.
Next up is the thing that the green slide handle goes into. We talked about it earlier.
See that junk at the bottom of the tube? Clean that out too.
I took a wet rag and shoved it in, and cleaned all of it out.
Next up are some improvements to the plunger head. There is a small slit
in near the plunger head ( notice I put electrical tape in the slit ) I
thought a slit couldn’t be good right there because when the plunger head
smacks up against the end of the plunger tube/housing, it would be off
center. So putting a couple layers of electrical tape in that slit would
equal out the plunger heads angle.
Electrical tape around the head doesn’t hurt either. Optional really. Nice
cushion for the force that is repeated many times over.
Next cut some pipe fitting foam ( The stuff they fit around pipe to prevent
condensation, some make nerf missiles out of the material ) This next step
diminishes the force of the green handle slamming into the bottom of the other
tube.
You should have a ring like this.
The entire ring won’t fit into the tube, it is too big. Cut a little piece of
until it fits.
I put that foam in there so I won’t feel like I am breaking it everytime I am
shooting a ball.
Look at the fine Beast
I also electrical taped (later on, no pics) the handles for a better feel and
grip.
-Kyle(flannel)
