Haha, thank you mate, both for the awesome feedback but also for taking the time decyphering that Swenglish, haha. Nice if you post a link when your's finished, would love to see! :)
Very very very good !!! I will make one and give it to the shooting range !! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Respect and greetings from Sparta … the old Sparta, Laconia Greece !
Looks awesome, and good idea on on the reset mechanism. A regular Texas star is a lot of fun to shoot, not so much when resetting it all the time. I might have to build one of these. I may try regular coil springs instead of the shocks though, maybe more durable.
The mechanism is interesting and a safe idea if one had to move a lot to reset. It won't move the same but it's still nice and a change of behaviour is interesting in a target. Instead of removing a mass the weight moves inward giving an imbalance and speeds it up a bit. I'd love to have one while it'll be a pain to move it to and from the range. EDIT: I read your long post in the comments and I'll give it a try when I can thx.
You're the "Macgyver" of targets! Please let me know if you ever decide to sell any of these.. even the little poppers.. excellent construction friend.
+Jonathan Colon Thats like the most awesome compliment I ever heard, thanks mate! Oh and if somebody picks it up for mass production I W I L L look you up and tell you Jonathan! Thanks mate :)
Hi Fine Design Fabrication, thanks for your reply and I am sorry I have not visited this page for very long. Yes I have interested parties within the USA (and other countries) that wishes to manufacture these. It is my fault they are not already on the market as I have to many projects and obligations going on simultaneously. I will update this page on how things will turn out. Thanks so much for your interest and apologies for not discovering the latest replies on this page. Have a nice one :)
Interesting idea, however the entire point of a Texas Star is for it to spin. When the plates flip in, they do reduce the torque applied on that arm by the plate, but this is not nearly as much torque reduction as having the plate come off. In addition, the plates flipping in do reduce the moment of inertia of the star, but the reduction is not nearly as much as having the plates fall off. Less reduction in torque and less reduction in moment of inertia both result in the star not spinning nearly as fast. I definitely love how easy your design is to reset, but I strongly suspect the reason why stars are not made this way is due to the facts I detailed above.
Hi Kurt, thanks for your thoughts on the topic. However you should think of it more like this, you know how the Apollo crew dropped a feather and a hammer at the same time on live telly? They fell and hit the ground at the exact same time. Now mind falling objects falls with a constant acceleration EXCEPT... when like on earth we are dealing with air resistance. But what we are dealing with here is heavy iron and not much distances to mention. (I humbly apologize for my sucky swenglish but I'm sure youre getting the point here.) This is the first point I had in mind when I thought this out. Secondly I remembered as a kid experimenting on those old style beam scales (that most still use variations of in reloading circles) and I clearly noticed that if I balanced out the beam scale and jerked away a heavy lead weight or a stupidly light foam weight the scale with the counterweight fell down whamming the ground like freefalling iron. I remember jerking the measured stuff away and dropping an iron ball from a metal bearing alongside the tray with the counterweights and low and behold they fell identically fast. So my second point is let your mind think of the "Texas Star" as a beam scale. Now theres other things at play here but mainly the above two seems to be the dominating factors weighing in (pun intended) and so far a l l shooters claim they cannot make out any difference on this solution and the "old medieval style" Texas star. Third point is correctly as you point out that of inertia and torque, but for some reason it does indeed react at an identical response pattern wether or not the plates drop off or flips/folds in like beamscale type. (Now I'm no scientist or brainy dude, just your average dumbass that can't help trying out ideas as they pop up in my bald head because I want to know... why not? Thus once in a while i stumble over something like the above. Or rather often, I think it is mainly because people with to much common sense just figure stuff like this prolly not work, but... ;) With all that said you CAN slow it down, the response time that is, providing you make the arms/points ridicilously long and for exactly the reasons you mention torque and inertia. But that actually demands ridicilously long arms like youd be really surprised. In order to give you a fair and unbias answer I should probably mention I have had and still have all the Texas Star variations I built sent out for evaluation. The updated targets (Texas Star updates) has been on tour with CAS shooters that uses them at competitions touring europe, mainly Sweden and Norway (I made other variations with quite different mechanisms along for small calibers like .22lr cap toyguns or whatever category these fall in to ;) These solutions has so far returned 100% positive feedback, all of them. Actually experienced competitions shooters are nuts about them and how much less effort turned in to supremely efficient practice sessions and everybody are shocked at how fast they clear any kind of Texas Star with only a few days of practice. There seems to be an direct correlation to the competitions shooters level of experience and the more love these recieve. The only drawback with more efficient practice is how ridicilously much more ammo you can put downrange with these. But to swiftly learn as opposed years and getting slightly better battling tiresome practice resetting and doing the other stuff opposed to actually practice shooting them. As in the long run you swiftly learn to clear a Texas Star at the speed of light the long run ammo save beats those odds. One thing is for certain, I have yet to hear a single shooter claim other than that they raise their level of shooting moving targets at an insane speed learning more in days than they learnt in years with the old style stars. Thats some awesome feedback that I'm really really happy aboot. Sorry for the long post but I figured I'd give you the best answer I could on if they work properly, how I thought "technically", how other experienced these and their unbiased feedback looks like. Hope it was a full answer to your thoughts Kurt? I appreciate your thoughts! Have a nice one mate :) /Tobbe
Awesome build and thank you for sharing! Would it be possible for you to send me some pictures or a drawing of the "pivot point"? still dont fully understand (sorry, im slow), im more of a visual learner. But thank you very much for sharing this!!
+mauro varela Howdy mate, thanks for the praise. Everything is buried deep below snow here right now but the thaw be here soon and we'll se what we can do then ;)
hello, first off this is a great design and I really do think you should patent the quick reset feature. However I was wondering if you could tell me how on earth you got the hydraulic tubes to recess themselves into the cylinders? From the looks of it, I think those tubes aren't functioning like they do on the car trunk but rather they are acting like a rod that swivels the assembly you have and the piston never goes into the tube at all. So with the way you have it set up, any old rod could be used. I went to my local junkyard and the owner is a friend of mine and when I told him what you had done he was impressed but didn't believe the force of the bullet would be enough to depress the piston (I understand you have the wing nut holding the tube in place and the pressure on the steel plate is at a neutral point as you say in the video - but it doesn't look like the tube is at it's neutral point). I said you had figured it out and he let me have six Chevy Venture trunk rods, which are a bit larger than yours, probably from a smaller vehicle, but anyway, he let me have them and said if I could make it work I'd just have to make him one after. So long and short, I think your idea is genius, I just want to try it out. If you could tell me if those pistons on the tubes really go into the cylinder then I will try to have mine do the same. But as far as I can see the tubes are really just pushing the assembly at the end of the steel plate around toward the shooter and back again when you reset it. Jim from New Jersey
Howdy mate, thanks for the awesome feedback. :) Okidoki, how to explain... (Im prolly exceptionally bad at explaining as I had a persistent pneumonia some 3 months now that refuses to give in despite repeated antibiotics. But I'll do my best and you can count my technical terminoligy vocab is horrible) First off you are right - there is a lever-thing going on here to depress the rod. Second right again - the tube is not neutral point but just as you say used to push the plate BOTH WAYS. (Think of the plate tipping back and forth over the neutral middle point) Or even better just like you said it pushes out in both open and closed mode. More in depth (with horrible terminology) if I try to explain further i prolly just make it worse but my english sux so I try to explain in additional ways to pherhaps make it clearer (Clear as mud?) If you look closely there are two axis, one is simply to swing the plate back and forth, slightly offset to this is another axis/swingpoint at the very end of the pneumatic rod. The latter is the center point for this to work as in let me explain the premises, First and foremost the displaced axis pushes the plate BOTH either "in" OR "out", further the concept, more detailed, is; A) the "neutral" point is close, but still a little bit from fully outward extended B) meaning that it has a slight tension that keeps it pushed out in place C) on the other side of the "neutral" point it will forcefully "flip in" the plate (to overcome the various g-forces that obviosly follows from previous plates engaged) D) With the correct neutral point the plate WILL reset when engaged Think of it like this and maybe it helps, imagine a hinge open out to a straight line, imagine a rod pushing agains the point of the hinge, either way the hinge folds - the rod will push it shut! With that in mind, I simply offset this function (close to the full outwards extension) to compensate for the g-forces caused by the rotational forces, (I think I adressed this the pivot point in the vid) Does that help clarify any Jim?
Mark Mazenko Thanks for the kind feedback mate! Unfortunately besides not being tiptop shape I do not have a workspace to help you out I am afraid. (I have been trying to borrow a workspace to finish my robot bender rodriguez project without luck all winter.) However I would advice you to bring a threaded rod and two bearings to your local scrapyard along with some nice buns for their coffee break. My experience is that these scrapyard guys are always kind and helpful people thats always amused by us shooters odd projects. Tell them you need a box to fit two bearings and I am certain these kind guys would not hesitate to help you cut out a sturdy box from an U or O beam whatever your wish is. (And you do not need the fancy supports I did on the threaded rod, I actually beleive the star would be more steady withougt the axis protruding so long from the bearing.) Where do you live btw? Please tell me if you get help or not, I will try to help you out with ideas or some sort of solution if possible if I can mate.
Mark Mazenko No problem mate, just say what dimensions you want me to check and I'll do it as soon as I can get a lift where it stands. My car engine broke down on the way to the car mechanic last friday for another issue. (It died like 135 times during rush hour in the city centre through all red lights and circulation spaces. Held up trafic over an hour WOHOO) I should have my rustbucket back on the 23/5 this month. But I will try to get a lift as soon as I know what exact measurements you wish my friend. I am pretty sure I can get there sooner... :)
If you don’t want to Manufacture this and sell it in the USA, can I file for a patent and try to push production and sell it here in the USA if I give you a percentage of the profits (a royalty) for it?
Interesting, thanks for posting. Have you shot it much? If so, with what calibers and how is it holding up? What steel are you using for the targets? AR500? Where did you source them? I'm starting a similar project.
You are welcome phishstyx. I only shoot pistol (.45acp, 9x19/9mm Luger) & revolver (38/357/45acp) calibers. All reloads with lead bullets I cast meaning no ricochets. Depending on caliber they either "coin" as in they flat out and it seems to rain coins/bottlecaps from the steel plates OR they totally disintegrate to powder. I have shot ordinary steel, armox & hardox, me & my mate own so many steel targets I lost track but I am pretty sure this is 10mm steel from the scrapyard. (Angle grinder cut-out) So as for holding up I cant imagine how many rounds it would take with lead bullets before they need replacing, I prolly cant count that high :) A tip is to borrow a sledgehammer at the scrapyard and give the steel a proper whack and some steel is harder. Oh and some army dudes wanted to try our steel targets including the texas star, swedish army have particularly hot 9mm loads with a steel metal jacket below the copper jacket and a tombak core. I could actually see a slight difference as a puny crater could be detected on some shots with that ammo, but we are talking about pherhaps 0,004" or 0,1mm. When I re-spray-painted them the puny indentations disappeared. So I'd say this Texas Star is holding up pretty good, however the hydraulic tubes take a lot of beating/wear during the outdoor winter storage. (Last winter it went down to -41C/-41,8F) So you should replace the hydraulic tubes once a year. I go to the local scrapyard and they give me a bucket full of hydraulic tubes for a bag of cinnamon buns and I just choose the 5 best/most similar. Altough a bag of buns is prolly a buck or two I just bite down and take that cost. But you should be aware that normally you should expect maintanence is required on steel targets. Saying that these have so far been ridiciously maintenance free. (Even more so than my other "normal" Texas Stars, I mustve had some luck on this solution. *knock on wood*) I actually have drawings for alternative mechanics, even some half finished parts. Plan to share here on the tube at a time when I can borrow a place to make them and my back is not holding me down. I would very much like to see your Texas Star when it is finished phishstyx. If there is anything at all you wonder about just feel free to ask and I will do my best to give you some swenglish answers. Thanks for commenting mate
PS. This Texas Star is made for shooting it much, fast and safe. As you can "shoot" reset it, you dont have to run back and forth like a dummy, you just shoot the crap out of it without getting tired from the "around stuff" once you tweaked it for your caliber it stays tweaked. Anybody tried it ends up shooting easily 20 times more than at a normal Texas Star (that we actually put up at the side). You get more continous practice without breaks/interference, and you end up evolving your shooting skills a 100 times faster than on a "normal" Texas Star.
without the plates falling off how does the star spin after the first shot? that's the whole concept behind this design. without the weight shifting it will not spin on its own making the followup shots more challenging.
Howdy mate, actually it works exactly the same - further it does so for the exact same reasons "the original design". I repeat - it works THE EXACT SAME WAY AS THE ORIGINAL DESIGN. (I've only upgraded the design to modern age, making simple physics work for us in some perspectives I felt would further our sport, as the respects of safety, user friendliness, faster handling, easier handling, less effort, massively more effective training asf) If youre asking "why" it works I'd be happy to try help explain, (Bare with my sucky swenglish mate) To simplify, imagine a beam scale - if you shift the weight - the beam reacts (To clarify, if you shift a plate - the above design will start turning the exact same way the old design does. Second plate will shift the weight just like the second plate literally dropped off the old design - for the exact same reason. And so forth - just the same. You see theres little and no reason the plates has to literally drop off from the star, shifting the weight does the same.) Hmm if it makes it easier to grasp the physics behind this fact, imagine the old riddle "what drops faster to the ground if you drop the following two objects at the same time from the top of empire state building, a bowling ball or a feather?" The answer is that they will hit the ground at exactly the same time. Extend this thought of train, if the star drops a plate or if the star shifts the weight - the above complies (Well actually they mostly comply, some other fundamentals of physics ghosts here and actually gives some interesting options to play with as to reaction times, delay and behaviour that literally leaves options for modifications that would even out the behaviour and make it more fair. However the above design is thought out to similate the behaviour of the old star to the point.) Some inside information that you might find fun, an american steel target manufacturer may soon have the above design availible (and likely more of my designs not yet seen on the tube) If have any more questions Danny I would be happy to try and explain to the best of my availability. Sorry if it got long, but I figured hopefully this was the answer you were looking for? Have a nice one mate! :)
Just to guess, the weight moving closer to the center would change the point of balance for the entire star. Without a uniform radius, the star is thrown off-balance and would start to rotate.
"Douchebaggery is very important on the range" You are my new favorite person! This design is amazing. Thank you!
Awesome idea! Can you post another video showing the inside , where the car tube/shock is attached to the plate?
I am so glad I found your video. I am attempting to build my own texas star. Yours is perfect. You crack me up with your Swinglish
Haha, thank you mate, both for the awesome feedback but also for taking the time decyphering that Swenglish, haha. Nice if you post a link when your's finished, would love to see! :)
Brilliant design, I love it! Well done!
Very very very good !!!
I will make one and give it to the shooting range !!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Respect and greetings from Sparta … the old Sparta, Laconia Greece !
Very cool and thanks for sharing your ideas. Also, your Swenglish is just fine. I appreciate your creativeness!
Thanks mate, much appreciated :)
Looks awesome, and good idea on on the reset mechanism. A regular Texas star is a lot of fun to shoot, not so much when resetting it all the time. I might have to build one of these. I may try regular coil springs instead of the shocks though, maybe more durable.
I vote for more awakey time! Great design! Thank you for posting your ideas!
Any chance you could show the back side of the plate pivot, spec where the end of the hydraulic cylinder is? Thank you, very nice build
Well done, ingenious design. I think I might need to build one of these for my range.
I like this design better than any other I've seen !!!! I would love to be able to afford one just like this one someday !!!
great design, thanks for posting!
Great job and great since of humor
The mechanism is interesting and a safe idea if one had to move a lot to reset.
It won't move the same but it's still nice and a change of behaviour is interesting in a target. Instead of removing a mass the weight moves inward giving an imbalance and speeds it up a bit. I'd love to have one while it'll be a pain to move it to and from the range.
EDIT: I read your long post in the comments and I'll give it a try when I can thx.
You are a very smart man. Thanks for sharing. Your improvements are *awesome*!
Thanks mate, I'll live many days on that kind comment :)
Well Done.
Thank You for Sharing.
You're the "Macgyver" of targets! Please let me know if you ever decide to sell any of these.. even the little poppers.. excellent construction friend.
+Jonathan Colon Thats like the most awesome compliment I ever heard, thanks mate! Oh and if somebody picks it up for mass production I W I L L look you up and tell you Jonathan! Thanks mate :)
Absolutely! Great vids! Keep up the content!
Incredible mate!
just about genius
Totally understand! Would you share the dimensions you used? A buddy said he would help me with project
Thanks!!
Wow, great job at designing and adjusting. Wish I could weld like that. Do you sell the star?
I bought for 100 bucks a welder then I destroyed some metal rods… but after 15 min. I got it !
Plus, there are a lot o videos to learn welding !!!
Have you found anyone to work with yet to go into production? I am a sheet metal manufacturer in USA and am very interested in talking more
Hi Fine Design Fabrication, thanks for your reply and I am sorry I have not visited this page for very long. Yes I have interested parties within the USA (and other countries) that wishes to manufacture these. It is my fault they are not already on the market as I have to many projects and obligations going on simultaneously. I will update this page on how things will turn out. Thanks so much for your interest and apologies for not discovering the latest replies on this page. Have a nice one :)
Interesting idea, however the entire point of a Texas Star is for it to spin. When the plates flip in, they do reduce the torque applied on that arm by the plate, but this is not nearly as much torque reduction as having the plate come off.
In addition, the plates flipping in do reduce the moment of inertia of the star, but the reduction is not nearly as much as having the plates fall off. Less reduction in torque and less reduction in moment of inertia both result in the star not spinning nearly as fast.
I definitely love how easy your design is to reset, but I strongly suspect the reason why stars are not made this way is due to the facts I detailed above.
Hi Kurt, thanks for your thoughts on the topic. However you should think of it more like this, you know how the Apollo crew dropped a feather and a hammer at the same time on live telly? They fell and hit the ground at the exact same time. Now mind falling objects falls with a constant acceleration EXCEPT... when like on earth we are dealing with air resistance. But what we are dealing with here is heavy iron and not much distances to mention. (I humbly apologize for my sucky swenglish but I'm sure youre getting the point here.)
This is the first point I had in mind when I thought this out.
Secondly I remembered as a kid experimenting on those old style beam scales (that most still use variations of in reloading circles) and I clearly noticed that if I balanced out the beam scale and jerked away a heavy lead weight or a stupidly light foam weight the scale with the counterweight fell down whamming the ground like freefalling iron.
I remember jerking the measured stuff away and dropping an iron ball from a metal bearing alongside the tray with the counterweights and low and behold they fell identically fast.
So my second point is let your mind think of the "Texas Star" as a beam scale.
Now theres other things at play here but mainly the above two seems to be the dominating factors weighing in (pun intended) and so far a l l shooters claim they cannot make out any difference on this solution and the "old medieval style" Texas star.
Third point is correctly as you point out that of inertia and torque, but for some reason it does indeed react at an identical response pattern wether or not the plates drop off or flips/folds in like beamscale type. (Now I'm no scientist or brainy dude, just your average dumbass that can't help trying out ideas as they pop up in my bald head because I want to know... why not? Thus once in a while i stumble over something like the above. Or rather often, I think it is mainly because people with to much common sense just figure stuff like this prolly not work, but... ;)
With all that said you CAN slow it down, the response time that is, providing you make the arms/points ridicilously long and for exactly the reasons you mention torque and inertia. But that actually demands ridicilously long arms like youd be really surprised.
In order to give you a fair and unbias answer I should probably mention I have had and still have all the Texas Star variations I built sent out for evaluation.
The updated targets (Texas Star updates) has been on tour with CAS shooters that uses them at competitions touring europe, mainly Sweden and Norway (I made other variations with quite different mechanisms along for small calibers like .22lr cap toyguns or whatever category these fall in to ;) These solutions has so far returned 100% positive feedback, all of them. Actually experienced competitions shooters are nuts about them and how much less effort turned in to supremely efficient practice sessions and everybody are shocked at how fast they clear any kind of Texas Star with only a few days of practice. There seems to be an direct correlation to the competitions shooters level of experience and the more love these recieve.
The only drawback with more efficient practice is how ridicilously much more ammo you can put downrange with these. But to swiftly learn as opposed years and getting slightly better battling tiresome practice resetting and doing the other stuff opposed to actually practice shooting them. As in the long run you swiftly learn to clear a Texas Star at the speed of light the long run ammo save beats those odds. One thing is for certain, I have yet to hear a single shooter claim other than that they raise their level of shooting moving targets at an insane speed learning more in days than they learnt in years with the old style stars.
Thats some awesome feedback that I'm really really happy aboot.
Sorry for the long post but I figured I'd give you the best answer I could on if they work properly, how I thought "technically", how other experienced these and their unbiased feedback looks like.
Hope it was a full answer to your thoughts Kurt? I appreciate your thoughts! Have a nice one mate :)
/Tobbe
helturflippad very impressive..you are a very intelligent and talented man..well done..
Nice job
Imponerande konstruktion! Thanks for sharing!
You are most welcome. And thanks for the nice post mate!
Awesome build and thank you for sharing! Would it be possible for you to send me some pictures or a drawing of the "pivot point"? still dont fully understand (sorry, im slow), im more of a visual learner. But thank you very much for sharing this!!
+mauro varela Howdy mate, thanks for the praise. Everything is buried deep below snow here right now but the thaw be here soon and we'll se what we can do then ;)
I love it! I am in Ohio, U.S.A. i am interested in building one of these, have you made any production arraignments yet? please contact me.
hello, first off this is a great design and I really do think you should patent the quick reset feature. However I was wondering if you could tell me how on earth you got the hydraulic tubes to recess themselves into the cylinders? From the looks of it, I think those tubes aren't functioning like they do on the car trunk but rather they are acting like a rod that swivels the assembly you have and the piston never goes into the tube at all. So with the way you have it set up, any old rod could be used. I went to my local junkyard and the owner is a friend of mine and when I told him what you had done he was impressed but didn't believe the force of the bullet would be enough to depress the piston (I understand you have the wing nut holding the tube in place and the pressure on the steel plate is at a neutral point as you say in the video - but it doesn't look like the tube is at it's neutral point). I said you had figured it out and he let me have six Chevy Venture trunk rods, which are a bit larger than yours, probably from a smaller vehicle, but anyway, he let me have them and said if I could make it work I'd just have to make him one after.
So long and short, I think your idea is genius, I just want to try it out. If you could tell me if those pistons on the tubes really go into the cylinder then I will try to have mine do the same. But as far as I can see the tubes are really just pushing the assembly at the end of the steel plate around toward the shooter and back again when you reset it.
Jim from New Jersey
Howdy mate, thanks for the awesome feedback. :) Okidoki, how to explain...
(Im prolly exceptionally bad at explaining as I had a persistent pneumonia some 3 months now that refuses to give in despite repeated antibiotics. But I'll do my best and you can count my technical terminoligy vocab is horrible)
First off you are right - there is a lever-thing going on here to depress the rod.
Second right again - the tube is not neutral point but just as you say used to push the plate BOTH WAYS.
(Think of the plate tipping back and forth over the neutral middle point)
Or even better just like you said it pushes out in both open and closed mode.
More in depth (with horrible terminology) if I try to explain further i prolly just make it worse but my english sux so I try to explain in additional ways to pherhaps make it clearer (Clear as mud?)
If you look closely there are two axis, one is simply to swing the plate back and forth,
slightly offset to this is another axis/swingpoint at the very end of the pneumatic rod.
The latter is the center point for this to work as in let me explain the premises,
First and foremost the displaced axis pushes the plate BOTH either "in" OR "out",
further the concept, more detailed, is;
A) the "neutral" point is close, but still a little bit from fully outward extended
B) meaning that it has a slight tension that keeps it pushed out in place
C) on the other side of the "neutral" point it will forcefully "flip in" the plate (to overcome the various g-forces that obviosly follows from previous plates engaged)
D) With the correct neutral point the plate WILL reset when engaged
Think of it like this and maybe it helps,
imagine a hinge open out to a straight line,
imagine a rod pushing agains the point of the hinge,
either way the hinge folds - the rod will push it shut!
With that in mind, I simply offset this function (close to the full outwards extension) to compensate for the g-forces caused by the rotational forces, (I think I adressed this the pivot point in the vid)
Does that help clarify any Jim?
Love your design! Would it be possible to buy the center piece from you? Threaded rod, bearings, box, etc? Would be simple to do the remainder
Mark Mazenko Thanks for the kind feedback mate! Unfortunately besides not being tiptop shape I do not have a workspace to help you out I am afraid. (I have been trying to borrow a workspace to finish my robot bender rodriguez project without luck all winter.) However I would advice you to bring a threaded rod and two bearings to your local scrapyard along with some nice buns for their coffee break. My experience is that these scrapyard guys are always kind and helpful people thats always amused by us shooters odd projects. Tell them you need a box to fit two bearings and I am certain these kind guys would not hesitate to help you cut out a sturdy box from an U or O beam whatever your wish is. (And you do not need the fancy supports I did on the threaded rod, I actually beleive the star would be more steady withougt the axis protruding so long from the bearing.) Where do you live btw? Please tell me if you get help or not, I will try to help you out with ideas or some sort of solution if possible if I can mate.
helturflippad Totally understand! Would you share the dimensions you used? A buddy said he would help me with project
Mark Mazenko No problem mate, just say what dimensions you want me to check and I'll do it as soon as I can get a lift where it stands. My car engine broke down on the way to the car mechanic last friday for another issue. (It died like 135 times during rush hour in the city centre through all red lights and circulation spaces. Held up trafic over an hour WOHOO) I should have my rustbucket back on the 23/5 this month. But I will try to get a lift as soon as I know what exact measurements you wish my friend. I am pretty sure I can get there sooner... :)
awesome job thanks for sharing
Thanks for the awesome feedback mate, much appreciated! :)
If you don’t want to Manufacture this and sell it in the USA, can I file for a patent and try to push production and sell it here in the USA if I give you a percentage of the profits (a royalty) for it?
Interesting, thanks for posting. Have you shot it much? If so, with what calibers and how is it holding up? What steel are you using for the targets? AR500? Where did you source them? I'm starting a similar project.
You are welcome phishstyx. I only shoot pistol (.45acp, 9x19/9mm Luger) & revolver (38/357/45acp) calibers. All reloads with lead bullets I cast meaning no ricochets. Depending on caliber they either "coin" as in they flat out and it seems to rain coins/bottlecaps from the steel plates OR they totally disintegrate to powder.
I have shot ordinary steel, armox & hardox, me & my mate own so many steel targets I lost track but I am pretty sure this is 10mm steel from the scrapyard. (Angle grinder cut-out) So as for holding up I cant imagine how many rounds it would take with lead bullets before they need replacing, I prolly cant count that high :)
A tip is to borrow a sledgehammer at the scrapyard and give the steel a proper whack and some steel is harder.
Oh and some army dudes wanted to try our steel targets including the texas star, swedish army have particularly hot 9mm loads with a steel metal jacket below the copper jacket and a tombak core. I could actually see a slight difference as a puny crater could be detected on some shots with that ammo, but we are talking about pherhaps 0,004" or 0,1mm. When I re-spray-painted them the puny indentations disappeared.
So I'd say this Texas Star is holding up pretty good, however the hydraulic tubes take a lot of beating/wear during the outdoor winter storage. (Last winter it went down to -41C/-41,8F) So you should replace the hydraulic tubes once a year. I go to the local scrapyard and they give me a bucket full of hydraulic tubes for a bag of cinnamon buns and I just choose the 5 best/most similar. Altough a bag of buns is prolly a buck or two I just bite down and take that cost.
But you should be aware that normally you should expect maintanence is required on steel targets. Saying that these have so far been ridiciously maintenance free. (Even more so than my other "normal" Texas Stars, I mustve had some luck on this solution. *knock on wood*)
I actually have drawings for alternative mechanics, even some half finished parts. Plan to share here on the tube at a time when I can borrow a place to make them and my back is not holding me down.
I would very much like to see your Texas Star when it is finished phishstyx.
If there is anything at all you wonder about just feel free to ask and I will do my best to give you some swenglish answers.
Thanks for commenting mate
PS. This Texas Star is made for shooting it much, fast and safe. As you can "shoot" reset it, you dont have to run back and forth like a dummy, you just shoot the crap out of it without getting tired from the "around stuff" once you tweaked it for your caliber it stays tweaked. Anybody tried it ends up shooting easily 20 times more than at a normal Texas Star (that we actually put up at the side). You get more continous practice without breaks/interference, and you end up evolving your shooting skills a 100 times faster than on a "normal" Texas Star.
Might be too late, but you should have patent this design..
without the plates falling off how does the star spin after the first shot? that's the whole concept behind this design. without the weight shifting it will not spin on its own making the followup shots more challenging.
Howdy mate, actually it works exactly the same - further it does so for the exact same reasons "the original design".
I repeat - it works THE EXACT SAME WAY AS THE ORIGINAL DESIGN. (I've only upgraded the design to modern age, making simple physics work for us in some perspectives I felt would further our sport, as the respects of safety, user friendliness, faster handling, easier handling, less effort, massively more effective training asf)
If youre asking "why" it works I'd be happy to try help explain, (Bare with my sucky swenglish mate)
To simplify, imagine a beam scale - if you shift the weight - the beam reacts
(To clarify, if you shift a plate - the above design will start turning the exact same way the old design does.
Second plate will shift the weight just like the second plate literally dropped off the old design - for the exact same reason.
And so forth - just the same. You see theres little and no reason the plates has to literally drop off from the star, shifting the weight does the same.)
Hmm if it makes it easier to grasp the physics behind this fact, imagine the old riddle "what drops faster to the ground if you drop the following two objects at the same time from the top of empire state building, a bowling ball or a feather?"
The answer is that they will hit the ground at exactly the same time.
Extend this thought of train, if the star drops a plate or if the star shifts the weight - the above complies
(Well actually they mostly comply, some other fundamentals of physics ghosts here and actually gives some interesting options to play with as to reaction times, delay and behaviour that literally leaves options for modifications that would even out the behaviour and make it more fair. However the above design is thought out to similate the behaviour of the old star to the point.)
Some inside information that you might find fun, an american steel target manufacturer may soon have the above design availible (and likely more of my designs not yet seen on the tube)
If have any more questions Danny I would be happy to try and explain to the best of my availability.
Sorry if it got long, but I figured hopefully this was the answer you were looking for?
Have a nice one mate! :)
Just to guess, the weight moving closer to the center would change the point of balance for the entire star. Without a uniform radius, the star is thrown off-balance and would start to rotate.
Hej! Vi är en klubb som skulle vilja köpa en sån av dig. Skulle det funka?
Cool.
Thanks mate, appreciate the feedback.