"Homemade Wii Gun Shell (Shotgun, phase one)"

by Matthew C.
2007.07.20

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I made a gun for the Wii!

I've been looking around the `net for a gun for the Wii and there have been one or two homemade gun shells made for the Wiimote that seem to work, but are just too complicated to make for the average person. Some articles are calling these people "ingenious modders".  Me?  No.  I created something simple and very inexpensive.  I'm not a modder, just an impatient fanboy. (I could've gone on the web and bought a generic gun shell for $25, but if I can make one for less than $3... why not?)

One person made a clip for the bottom of their classic controller and used CAD and polymers and high tech equipment. I don't have any of that. What I DO have is a dremel tool, a saw, and some leftover PVC pipe.

Here's how I made my inexpensive homemade solution to a Wii gun shell that is relatively fast and easy. My solution, while nowhere near as ugly as the steering wheel made out of tape and cardboard, still won't win any beauty contests. It doesn't look like a real gun when used which is good because it won't get me shot by the police. I was most interested in keeping things easy and straight-forward. Almost everybody should be able to do this.

Absolutely NO alterations were made to the Wii Remote or Nunchuk. Those things are expensive compared to the PVC pipe. If I was going to screw anything up, I'd rather it be the pipe.

DISCLAIMER: Follow these directions at your own risk. Neither the author of this article nor Yeah Dogg shall be responsible for any results. Always be safe. Err on the side of caution.

Materials used:

Dremel (or similar carving tool) Saw (or similar cutting tool) PVC Pipe (or similar tube material)

Dust mask Pencil (for marking pipe) Wii Remote (for fit only) Wii Nunchuk (for fit only)

Put the dust mask on when cutting/carving PVC pipe. It creates a lot of plastic "dust".

First, I cut the pipe down with a saw until it felt... "right". (The pipe is one and a half inch inside diameter, 1½, with a thickness of two sixteenths.) If you decide to do this yourself, use your own judgment. Do whatever feels right as far as barrel length is concerned. If you're curious, I used a ten-inch pipe length, 10". (PVC is nice in that it's somewhat soft for the saw and dremel to cut through.)

Once I had my PVC pipe cut to length, the first thing I needed was access to the Nunchuk's buttons. To accomplish this, I cut out a section of the pipe. The resulting hole is about three quarters of an inch, ¾, from the one end of the pipe. (The hole is one and a half inches long, 1½, and one and a quarter inches high, 1¼.) Once I shoved the Nunchuk into the end of the pipe I could access the buttons, but I couldn't push the analog stick forward... so I removed the Nunchuk and marked where I thought I needed to remove some pipe. I used the dremel to carve out some of the top of the pipe to allow free analog stick movement.


I put the Nunchuk in there and tried it out. Seems OK. Alright, now that we have the Nunchuk in there and working, it's starting to feel like a shotgun.

One important thing to remember is to line up the Wiimote with the Nunchuk in the pipe, if not, you have to fix it in phase two. Once I figured out where I wanted the Wiimote and Nunchuk to line up, I marked the PVC pipe with a pencil. After making sure the Wiimote and Nunchuk were nowhere near the pipe, I cut a section out of the top of the pipe to allow access to the Wiimote's 1 and 2 buttons and lights. (I removed a section of pipe about one inch wide,1", and one and an eighth inches long.)


We're almost there! Ok, the width of the pipe holds the Wiimote pretty snug. (A little too snug for my liking.) SO, I cut two grooves in the pipe to help guide the wiimote into the "barrel". The two grooves (one for each top corner of the Wiimote) are one and a half inches long, 1½, and about one quarter inch,¼, below the cutout I made for the buttons and lights.


Once the pipe was dusted off, I put the Nunchuk into the back of the pipe and the Wiimote in the front. Both still fit rather snug. I fed the wrist strap and connector cable (between the Wiimote and Nunchuk) into the barrel of my new "shotgun".


While not the most elegant or accurate representation of a real-life weapon, this gives me the feel of a shotgun when playing some games and this gives me access to all of the Wiimote's and Nunchuk's buttons. All-in-all this was a pretty inexpensive solution and it only took me about an hour (considering I only had vague idea of what I going for).

In the end, I have a gun for the Wii! (Although this is only phase one. I have an idea about how I can make this shell better.)

(You can view 'phase one' pictures of my Wii gun shell below.)








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