Dante Blaster (Ehdrien Gecko Remaster)

I absolutely fell in love with the Gecko by Ehdrien the minute I first saw it. I immediately built one and as one does I found things that I wanted to change. I'm not one for modifying stl files as the results can be meh at best especially starting with low resolution files. What is one to do?

I present the Dante Blaster. It may seem presumptuous to change the name of the blaster but let's be real there are waaay too many iterations of the Gecko/Lizzie available. I have seen as high as v4.0. I thought about being edgy and calling this v6.66 but I figured a name change would provide a clean slate for the community to build from.

Starting with my printed Gecko 1.0, I painstakingly modeled the entire blaster in Fusion360. There were three primary design parameters and one overall goal that I wanted to achieve. The parameters:

- Get rid of the slide lock/sliding prime handle. - Get rid of the overhanging portion of the slide (yeah I know the Lizzie has it but it just looked off to me). - Narrow the grip profile through the use of the mini angled talon magazines that became available for the Nightingale. Through all of this my overall goal was a smooth blaster with a great air seal that fits well in the hand and was consistent. I feel I have met that goal hence this release.

The Dante uses most of the original Gecko hardware, such as the spring/plunger tube/plunger guide etc. The required o-rings were a pain to get so I designed around an inexpensive set of o-rings available on Amazon. With the elimination of Gecko's slide lock, based on feedback, I came up with an invisible slide lock that uses a pair of ball detents to hold the slide in place when the blaster is primed. I also remodeled the trigger to make it actuate the catch with as little drag as possible. The biggest change for the Dante is the use of Worker Nightingale magazines. This change allowed a narrower grip but necessitated some changes to the pusher and turnaround. The standard pusher had the o-ring on it which would drag on the new magazine feed lips. I moved the o-ring to the turnaround so that the pusher would seal seal into it once it's in battery. I also had to come up with a new way of keeping the slide from moving too far forward once the blaster is fired, hence the stepped edge of the pusher. Overall, it's a ton of little details that add up to a nicely polished finished product that has a smooth prime and a great air seal.

Print 5 walls 25% infill. This may be a bit overkill but I come from the Voron community so this is pretty standard structural part parameters. Support Needed: frame_front, frame_rear, turnaround Print w/Brim: plunger_rod, pusher For the magazine: I used an official Worker Nightingale magazine that I cut down. Replace the bottom cap of the magazine with magazine_base from the fileset.

The plunger tube and barrel should be a tight friction fit. You can add a layer of e6000 glue for even better sealing.

The recommended retaliator springs for the Gecko will work but I used a 5.5" (140mm) K31 spring which gives me a nice mid 90 to low 100fps which is the sweet spot for my needs.

The 17x2.4mm o-ring goes in the groove in the turnaround.

Links to hardware:

Screws

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WCT6VY6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1THAZDOWP300U&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/iExcell-Socket-Button-Screws-Washers/dp/B0811NDFNJ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=37KYV3TYYGFC0&keywords=m3+bhcs&qid=1704405065&sprefix=m3+bhcs%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-3

Plunger tube and guide rod

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FNYZ7SN?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002N7RPHY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Ball Detents and heatset inserts

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TGGBM2L?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TRK72TR/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A17NWEQILMUSOP&psc=1

Springs and o-rings

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BN1654P/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?smid=A25P4OVD8J0C6N&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071259WWW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?smid=A257ALKOU7JKIJ&psc=1 (can also use pen spring)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092MDGM11/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?smid=A15EVEQ6HU2PEN&psc=1

The o-rings were the only thing I bought specific for this project. The rest was stuff I already had on hand.

Bill of Materials

Barrel: 150mm length 16mm x 13mm aluminum tube

Plunger tube: 71mm length 30mm x 27mm aluminum tube

Plunger guide rod: 40mm length 17/32 brass tube

Spring: 7-9kg Retaliator spring or any similarly sized spring

O-rings: 1x 27mm x 3.1mm, 1x 17mm x 2.4mm

16x M3x5mm heatset inserts

8x M3x4mm countersunk screws

2x M3x6mm countersunk screws

6x M3x6mm buttonhead screws

4x M3x8mm buttonhead screws

2x M3x25mm socket head screws

4x M3x30mm socket head screws

1x spring for catch

1x 25mm x 5mm extension spring for trigger return

Optional return spring for slide that fits over barrel