I was thinking about a gift for a friend, and she really likes guns (military brat). And after making my Light Up Space Poster, I figured I could use the left over parts and make a little light up toy gun. Of course, make a Laster Pointer gun! I got some basic ideas from Blue Ray Laser Gun at HackNMod. To make a long story short, I found that the Dollar Store is the best place to get toy guns. To my surprise, they also have super cheap laser pointer key chains. So the 2 main components, were about $1.29 each (yeah, they should call it the buck-twenty-nine store now). Here is the complete list of parts and tools:

• Toy Pellet Gun – Dollar Store, $1.29
• Cheap Laser Pointer Keychain – Dollar Store, $1.29
• Wire
• Push Button Switch (Trigger)
• 150 Ohm Resistor
• 9 Volt Battey
• 9 Volt Batter Clip – Radio Shack
• Solder and Soldering Iron
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun
• Philips Screwdriver

The gun I got, had 3 screws, and popped open. Its very cheap plastic, so be careful pulling it apart. Same with the laser pointer. I used a $10 Black And Decker Laser Pointer for one version (before I found the one at the Dollar Store) and that is in an all aluminum case, so you will need a file to cut it about 1 cm from the base of nose. The Black And Decker was noticeably brighter and a higher quality laser.

One the diode is removed, we need to bypass the switch. Solder the negative batter leas to the side of the switch closes to the diode.

It took me a while to find the best place to solder the positive side, with the resistor to the diode. For the $1 pointer, its on the back, for the $10 its on the some bronze plating.

I used a resister just to be safe and to get he voltage down to about what the device was created for. Using a 9V was done for convenience only. It was easy to stick that sucker in the handle and connect it with the battery clip. The $10 pointer could take the 9V without the resistor, so if you want more power don’t use the resistor.

Be careful soldering the switch up! I ruined one holding the soldering iron to the lead for too long and melted the plastic housing. So do not linger with the soldering iron when soldering the switch.

I had to cut/melt away some of the gun for the switch to fit through when the gun was placed back together. The plastic is cheap enough, it is easy to manipulate. Remove bits so you can fit the batter, switch, and laser diode in the barrel. Secure the switch and diode with generous amounts of hot glue. Try to make sure the diode is aligned so it aims true (mine is a little up and to the right). I also wrapped my 9V in tape so it didn’t rattle around when the gun was placed back together.

That should do it. Now, aim, fire, and avoid shooting your eye out!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Tinker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.