I’ll second all of what Ali said, but I’d also like to add that not all games these days even allow homemade darts due to safety concerns. The worst-case here would be a felt tip falling off and exposing the metal washer underneath.
For this reason some darts were made without a washer at all - and with either a solid lump of hotglue serving as the weighted tip or with a small BB in the bottom of that hole for weight (which guide Ali linked might already say? There’s a follow-up post saying that it was updated to include metal-free dart tips but I can’t find where it describes how to make them.)
OP, I’d recommend reconsidering whether you want a hard tip. If you’re running into issues with people not feeling and not taking hits, improving the velocity of your blaster will solve that while also providing greater range a difficulty-to-dodge. (If your problem is people “not feeling” and not taking hits - then that’s not something that any modification can solve short of something actually dangerous.)
If you do have a good reason for wanting a harder-than-normal tip, then 3d printed tips are an option. TPU is available in a variety of hardnesses and differing infill and tip geometry should theoretically allow you to design a tip with whatever characteristics you want. I wouldn’t recommend this - most people don’t other with homemade darts at all any more and there’s good reasons for that - but it is an option if you just want homemade darts.
My homemade darts wouldn’t be for any games just shooting targets and my brother. I’m just sick of shitty darts jamming my nexus every time I’m in a battle with my brother.
Just checking - how confident are you that it’s the darts that are the issue? The Nexus Pro has a known manufacturing issue where the edges of the barrel at the breech end can be rough; sanding them smooth or running a blade around the inside of the barrel can fix that issue. Others have reported that the tightening rings are too tight and have had less jams once they sanded those slightly larger, although that’s harder to do without affecting the seal.
Magazine feeding is, in magfed blasters in general, also a common cause of jams: old mags, mags that were stored full, mags that are dirty inside . . . and, yes, also old darts with compressed foam (usually from being stored in a mag or front-loading blaster) are often to blame - though in the latter case it’s old/damaged darts that are the issue rather than darts that were shitty out of the box.
The Nexus Pro, like any sealed-breech blaster, will be happier with darts that have heads that are smaller (either slightly or much, but either way smaller) than the foam. Darts with heads the same size as the foam can work well in flywheelers, front-loaders, and traditional toy-style chamber-in-bolt blasters, so they’re fairly common.
So: if the problem is in fact the darts and if the conventional-for-a-good-reason solution of getting new darts of the right type isn’t the right solution for you, then old-school foam backer rod darts might be a good idea - but both of those are big "if"s.
I’ll second all of what Ali said, but I’d also like to add that not all games these days even allow homemade darts due to safety concerns. The worst-case here would be a felt tip falling off and exposing the metal washer underneath.
For this reason some darts were made without a washer at all - and with either a solid lump of hotglue serving as the weighted tip or with a small BB in the bottom of that hole for weight (which guide Ali linked might already say? There’s a follow-up post saying that it was updated to include metal-free dart tips but I can’t find where it describes how to make them.)
OP, I’d recommend reconsidering whether you want a hard tip. If you’re running into issues with people not feeling and not taking hits, improving the velocity of your blaster will solve that while also providing greater range a difficulty-to-dodge. (If your problem is people “not feeling” and not taking hits - then that’s not something that any modification can solve short of something actually dangerous.)
If you do have a good reason for wanting a harder-than-normal tip, then 3d printed tips are an option. TPU is available in a variety of hardnesses and differing infill and tip geometry should theoretically allow you to design a tip with whatever characteristics you want. I wouldn’t recommend this - most people don’t other with homemade darts at all any more and there’s good reasons for that - but it is an option if you just want homemade darts.
My homemade darts wouldn’t be for any games just shooting targets and my brother. I’m just sick of shitty darts jamming my nexus every time I’m in a battle with my brother.
Which darts are you using, and are you in the US?
Just checking - how confident are you that it’s the darts that are the issue? The Nexus Pro has a known manufacturing issue where the edges of the barrel at the breech end can be rough; sanding them smooth or running a blade around the inside of the barrel can fix that issue. Others have reported that the tightening rings are too tight and have had less jams once they sanded those slightly larger, although that’s harder to do without affecting the seal.
Magazine feeding is, in magfed blasters in general, also a common cause of jams: old mags, mags that were stored full, mags that are dirty inside . . . and, yes, also old darts with compressed foam (usually from being stored in a mag or front-loading blaster) are often to blame - though in the latter case it’s old/damaged darts that are the issue rather than darts that were shitty out of the box.
The Nexus Pro, like any sealed-breech blaster, will be happier with darts that have heads that are smaller (either slightly or much, but either way smaller) than the foam. Darts with heads the same size as the foam can work well in flywheelers, front-loaders, and traditional toy-style chamber-in-bolt blasters, so they’re fairly common.
So: if the problem is in fact the darts and if the conventional-for-a-good-reason solution of getting new darts of the right type isn’t the right solution for you, then old-school foam backer rod darts might be a good idea - but both of those are big "if"s.