Fireband elastic band gun strip-down and rebuild with extra fire power. Part 1

 Hello, I decided to start a quickie project to keep things going until I collect all the parts for the solar heater.
I have a semi automatic elastic band gun that my Nephew got a hold of and started dismantling so as it needed repairing I thought I would make some `improvements' to it.

The base gun for the project. AA battery for size.

 Once the gun is carefully split into it's two halves there's not a lot inside just the lock mechanism and a couple of balance weights. The lock is basically an escapement mechanism that allows the spoked wheel to turn one segment at a time every time the trigger is pulled.

Lock mechanism.

Balance weights in hand grip and under barrel at the front.

Once I got the lock out I noticed there was sharp casting flash right around on one side of the spoked wheel that was catching a bit on the trigger moulding, that too needed the casting flash removing and smoothing down. Both bits were then sanded with progressively finer grit until smooth. 

Ready for a good sanding.

Once refitted the lock operated a lot smoother, then the two halves were glued back together again.

Lock mechanism refitted and working better than ever.

Glued and clamped.

 After the glue had cured I then set about it with my detail sander and removed yet more casting flash and general rough edges.Then I hand-sanded over where I had been with the detail sander paying special attention to the seams which seem to have a tolerance of  ±0.5mm in the fit,

Ready for customising.

Now that it's nice & smooth around the seams I can move on to increasing it's firepower and it's customisation.

Check back soon for the next part of the project.

James.