The Perkins Nerf Dart

First, right off the bat, 99% of this was taken from Stefan’s dart. I just wanted to add some pictures and put a slight twist on his dart.

First off, go to Home Depot and buy some Poly Foam Caulk Saver from Frost King. Since I use the Wildfire, I got the 1/2″ diameter variety. Next, go over to the aisle with all the nails and get some 3/8″ thumbtacks with the plastic coating. I choose yellow, you don’t have to.

Ok, once you get home, unravel the foam you just bought, stretch it out tight and nail it down to your workbench in the basement like I did.

Click picture to see full size

Go upstairs and get a cool beverage and munch on some nachos. After your little snack, hit the bathroom and grab the blow dryer. While the foam is still being stretched, heat up the foam to help it straighten.

Ok, plug in your hot glue gun and let it warm up. You don’t have one? Borrow one from the Martha Stewart like lady across the street. Now the foam should be pretty straight so start cutting off pieces the same size as the darts that came with your gun.

Now use the tip of the hot glue gun to melt a hole in the dart about 1/2″ down. Leave about an 1/8″ around the sides. Now glob it up with hot glue until it’s flush with the top. Put a thumbtack, pointy side up on your workbench and turn the dart over and push it into the dart. Now turn over the dart and push that tack in about 1/8″ of an inch with your finger. The glue is hot so don’t burn yourself. Make sure the thumbtack head is level with the front of the dart. Wait a second as the glue sets up. Now put a little bead around the top edge of the thumbtack. Don’t worry about the foam coming over the edges, we’ll fix that up in a few minutes. Do the next 60 or so like I just described.

Click picture to see full size

Now go back and using the edge of the hot glue gun, melt the side of the dart so that you have a flush tip. Do this for all the darts you just put aside.

You’re done! I was a little leary about using a thumbtack, because of the risk of it flying out. You’ll see when you make yours that it’s impossible to fall out. Try yanking it out! The hot glue melts the plastic coating of the thumbtack into the dart while the point of the thumbtack is anchored securely in the dart with a nice size drop of glue.

Click picture to see full size

Congrats, you just made a crap load of darts for about 4 bucks. I actually would have bought some darts online or in the stores, but nobody is selling them! I refuse to buy them from hasbro and have to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery. Thinkgeek.com is also selling darts, but after you include shipping, they come out to a dollar a dart. Now I have so many darts, I can fire off a few rounds at my co-workers and not have to worry about looking behind file cabinets and stuff like a putz.

And now for the best part! Shooting it! Please note, that I made my clip removeable and removed those stupid plastic rods in the ammo clip. I didn’t want to have to waste me time drilling holes in all my darts. Check out this short movie of me shooting my darts. It’s about 1.2meg.

Click to see movie!

Want more nerf info, go to NerfOnline.com and be sure to check out the forums.