Simple blowpipe with darts for beginners.

When my children were hanging around the house all fidgety and bored, they came to request something to shoot with.  I had some 20mm PVC pipe lying around and considered making toy guns.  When the thought of blowpipes struck me though, I realised that it would both give a more real shooting experience and be educational in the form of hand-eye coordination, and at the same time be simpler for me to make.

It was only after I had to demonstrate it to them that I realised the actual effectiveness of the end result.  I did continue to tweak and optimise it until I was happy though making the cones of the darts light, but sufficiently solid and effective while keeping the tolerances to a level of having them slide freely through the pipe while limiting blow-by to a minimum.

I found that the length of the pipe can make quite a difference to the speed and accuracy of the dart, so you might want to lean more towards a longer pipe for extra satisfaction.

The model prints without any supports and you don't need to use any fasteners either.  Other than the printed parts, you only need the piece of PVC pipe to be ready to shoot.  It is also not very hungry for filament and it is so easy that any beginner should be able to have a go at it.

Materials needed:

• Less than 100g PLA or PETG filament
• 1m (3ft) or more of 20mm (or ½ inch) PVC electrical conduit from any hardware store
• No glue needed
• No fasteners needed

All parts will fit just about any 3D printer.  In my case I am using a Prusa MK3S, with some rather cheap filament, so you might just want to re-slice for consideration of your filament settings.