It looks like many home tinkerers of weapons are turning their sights into rail guns. This is perhaps the third story of railgun that we have posted in less than a month. Just three days ago, we posted about a powerful homemade railgun, and for this weekend, it's another rail gun. But this time, it is sleeker and very much portable railgun that what was before a stuff of science fiction such as the Chem Railgun in the movie "Elysium" is now fast becoming a reality.

What's even more fascinating about these portable railguns is that they are being designed by civilians on their time and money, not some defense contractor that always gobbles up millions, if not billions, of taxpayer money for expensive military hardware.

In this case, the railgun made by Alex Smyth, or what he call the "Electromagnetic Plasma Rifle" as it fires rounds filled with ionized plasma, instead of regular projectiles, which in the previous DIY railgun projects we posted about, were mainly made up of small slabs of metal. The theory is that these ionized plasma rounds explode upon impact.

He also had another approach as where he built a double-helix from a pair of rails instead of using just straight rails which is what the other DIY railgun projects and even the U.S. Navy's Railgun project use. This is akin to rifling a railgun where the spin provides flight stability. According to Foxtrot Alpha, the projectiles are made of a glass tubes filled with neon gas with a copper sleeve. With these rounds ionized when they are fired, they emit a bright red glow. These rounds can penetrate thick metal plates and can make quick work of pumpkins.

To power the railgun, it can be plugged in to a 220 volt outlet which is just the problem as it is a battery or a high capacity portable power source that can maintain the same charged for sustained use that is a big hindrance that will make it portable.

But what this DIY project also promises as explained by Foxtrot Alpha is that soldiers or law enforcement officers can adjust the power of the railgun. They can dial it down to make it less lethal if it is more for crowd control or less threatening situations, or turn it up bit more if they are up against armored targets or in shoot to kill missions.

These DIY railgun projects are showing the future of weapons. While these are not feasible yet as weapons that can be used in the field or in the streets as they're still too big and power sources to make them truly portable still inadequate, future technological advances would further shrink them and make them more energy efficient. Also, tinkerers such as Alex Smyth (who also previously built a steampunk gatling gun) show innovative ways to make portable railguns a reality.