Small Batch Silicone Darts

These darts have surprised me with their durability and accuracy. They resemble glue domes but have less death potential, imo. Straight silicone is injected into a syringe to allow for precise application. A cavity must be burnt or drilled into the foam. It's pretty easy, which works for me, and is also fast. The main thing is to keep the silicone away from the edges of the foam no matter what. Any overlap will result in squibs. I show pool noodle foam and stock darts but I'm sure this will work with fbr. I used dap silicone rubber sealant from kmart. Give the darts 5 (ugh) days to cure. My janky makeshift hotglue gun/burning tool is not ideal but workable.

Here's the silicone and syringe.

 

Inject the silicone into the syringe. It's possible to get 20+ darts out of one filling.

I made a cavity in the foam with a wonky makeshift tool. It's a dremel grinding stone shoved into my hotglue gun's nozzle and secured with copper wire.  I sink it down to the 2nd coil into the top of the blank, being careful to align it and sink it clean. This isn't the most accurate method of course and needs some work.

Inject in the silicone from the bottom up, being careful to fill the cavity thoroughly. The syringe allows for precise application which should make getting consistently weighted heads easier. Keep the mound and any residue away from the edges of the foam.

I used a small square of moistened chamois type material wrapped around my finger to shape each head.

These take forever to cure. I found that 3 days was not enough for this brand. 5 days resulted in more durable darts. The heads will still come out if ripped out but withstand quite a bit of abuse. Range is comparable to my hotglue domes. Accuracy is good although I have had more bad darts with this method than my usual. Durability is good if properly cured.