How to Make an Airsoft Machine Gun - DIY Vortex BBMG

In this tutorial I will be showing you step by step how to make your own airsoft machine gun. This gun is a ton of fun to play around with and it is very inexpensive to build! You can find all of the parts at your local hardware store. Let's get started!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6QQOOgIyHg

Before you go through the rest of the steps for this build, you should definitely watch the video that I have posted above. The video will go through the entire build in depth and also show you how the finished project works! Also, if you enjoy the video you should definitely hit the like button or even consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Most importantly don't forget to follow me here on my Instructables page so that you can see all of my future projects!

The parts that you will need for this project are:

- 5/16 x 20" brake line

- 1/4" threaded rod cut to 8" in length

- Two 3" springs or one 6" spring

- 1/4" brass nipple

- 1/4" blow gun

- 2" ABS

- 2" female adapter

- 2" end cap

- 2" cleanout plug

- Polyethylene cutting board (I got mine from IKEA)

- Three 1/4" nuts

The first thing that I did was cut out 2 rectangles from the cutting board. These rectangles both needed to be 1-7/8" in height and 2-1/2" in width. After the two pieces were cut out I glued them together using some super glue and then clamped the tightly together in the vice. This piece was then left to dry.

While the rectangles were drying I cut a 2" circle out of the cutting board using a 2" hole saw bit with my drill press.

After this I got the 2" cleanout plug and drilled a 1/4" hole directly in the middle of it. I then tightly fastened the threaded rod through the hole using two nuts.

After that I slid the two springs onto the threaded rod, and then placed the 2" circle from the cutting board ontop. I fastened everything into place using a lock nut. This piece will be acting as a plunger that feeds the BB's into the vortex block. You will see how this works shortly.

When the two rectangles from earlier were dry and now one solid block I could continue to work on it again. What I did was drill a hole directly through it using an 1-1/4" Forstner bit. The bottom of this hole should be fairly close to the edge of the block as shown in the picture.

This piece will be made into whats known as a vortex block and it is the main component of this gun. I will need to drill two more holes into the block to make it functional. I will need need to drill a hole into the bottom of the vortex block for the air supply as well as drill a hole into the top of the block for the barrel. These holes need to be drilled perfectly as shown in the picture to ensure that the gun will work properly.

I used a 3/16" drill bit to make the bottom hole for the air supply and I used a 21/64" drill bit to make the hole for the barrel.

After the holes were drilled into the vortex block I cut a piece of the 2" ABS to 8-1/2" in length and then glued the female adapter onto the end. This is were the plunger that was made earlier will thread into. The vortex block should fit snugly into the end of the pipe as shown in the picture.

The next thing that I had to do was drill a hole in the pipe that will line up perfectly with the small air supply hole in the vortex block. To mark out perfectly were I needed to drill I colored the the end of a Q tip with a marker and then used it to make a mark onto the pipe. I then drilled a small hole through were I just marked and made sure that it lined up perfectly with the hole in the vortex block.

After this I needed to make the holes big enough for the brass nipple to thread into. So I went ahead and made the hole in the pipe bigger using an 11/32" drill bit and also drilled half way through the air supply hole in the vortex block using a 3/8" Forstner bit.

Now the brass nipple could thread through the pipe and half way into the air supply hole in the vortex block. So I threaded the brass nipple into the blow gun, and then made my own threads into the pipe and into the vortex block.

The next thing that I did was cut 12" off of the 5/16" brake line. This will be used for the barrel of the gun. I used a drill bit to sharpen one of the inside edges or the brake line to make it easier for the airsoft BB's to roll into.

After that I had to mark out a hole in the 2" end cap for the barrel to fit through. I marked out were I needed to drill by using the same Q-tip trick that I used earlier and then drilled a 21/64" hole through were I marked the cap.

I then glued the barrel into the vortex block using super glue and left it to dry. Once it was dry I re enforced it with some hot glue.

It was finally time to assemble the entire gun. I laid out all of the parts onto the table so that you guys can see how everything fits together. After I assembled most of the gun, the last thing that I had to do was glue the 2" end cap onto the end of the gun. Once it was glued into place I glued around the barrel with some hot glue.

And that's it! The gun is now complete and ready for firing! It just needs to get loaded with some airsoft BB's and get hooked up to an air compressor. I recommend using a line pressure of between 60-100 PSI. Don't forget to watch my video to see this gun in action if you haven't already watched it.

I hope that you all enjoyed this project. Thanks for watching and reading!