Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-30049823-20190708030947/@comment-30049823-20190708061919

...and after some experiments with twist-tie location and tension (and shortening the homemade grenade a bit more), I ended up with this:

'taint pretty, and doesn't fly straight, BUT IT FLIES!

(Actual Elite Missile included in pic, for comparison.)

Note that it has to be an AIRTIGHT seal, or it ain't gonna work. My plug is tapered the opposite way you'd probably expect, and the twist-tie keeping it in has to be EXTREMELY tight to keep it from just blowing out the end. The other twist-ties are pretty tight too; you gotta make sure there's minimal leakage when you blow into the back end of it.

Twist-ties aren't really a viable solution beyond this initial prototype; I'm gonna need adhesive/sealant and possibly a strip of tape on the inner side of where I split it open, to hold air better.

But shrinking the diameter of a pool noodle and capping the end is way, way, WAY easier than trying to figure out how to drill a cylindrical hole into a solid chunk of foam. This closed-cell plasticky stuff is very easy to work with using an ordinary disposable utility knife; no need for heated cutters or anything.