Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Circular saw blades as ammo

If you want success at youtube, unfortunately you have to go to extremes.

I have presented beautiful slingshots en masse, with just a few thousand views. But it is the extreme stuff that makes videos go viral.

Machete shooters, vampire stake launchers gatling slingshots do that. But you know what? A certain percentage of my viewers will actually go into slingshots as a hobby. And they don't copy my crazy designs - no, they mostly try naturals or boardcuts.

So every once in a while I will have to make wild shooters.

But you know what - it's fun!

Here is the sawblade flick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrHFxscunOA

Saturday, May 28, 2011

New slingshot release





I made another release, entirely from wood (except one screw and four short 6mm aluminum tubes).

It came out pretty good, inked and oiled it to give it a nice reddish finish. The rollers in the arms turn very smoothly, which ensures a totally accurate release.

Hope you like it!

BTW: Some more pictures about the making process can be found here:

[url]http://slingshotforum.com/topic/7789-project-multiplex-release-part-1-and-2/[/url]

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A slingshot for my CEO




About 18 months ago, the company I work for (I founded it together with my brother 20 years ago) was acquired by a publicly traded corporation (my brother and me still hold a little more than 20% of the shares). I am still the CEO of the company.

But now I have a boss. I directly report to the CEO of my mother corporation. He is a great guy and a financial genius.

At this year's dealer incentive trip, it came out he had seen at least one of my videos. When the band was playing a particularly lousy song, he gestured to me that I should shoot the band members with a slingshot (as a joke of course).

So now I want to give him a present, one of my handmade frames. I decided to use wood (multiplex core and striped maple as scales), I used my new Phoenix design, but made the fork higher - after all, he is most likely not experienced with slingshots and I don't want to be responsible for a hand hit...

It came out really really good. The sun was down already when I made the pics, so the glass like finish of the four polycoats does not come out - but it is really shiny and smooth.

Will put on medium target bands, good for beginners.

Now I am waiting for the wooden presentation box I ordered. Will add some new chrome steel balls and arrange things in the box like an ancient pistol case.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

"The Avalanche" - six shots at the same time

Slinghshots are powerful weapons. But there is a limit to their destructional capabilities, as the speed of rubber is limited - and so is the speed of the ammo. One can use heavier ammo to achieve more energy. But there is a limit to that, too - if the ammo gets too big, it won't penetrate, just smash. Heavy ammo is expensive, too.

A big steel ball like the 20 mm (.79") is pretty much the maximum size ammo that makes sense. The ones used in this video will crash though wooden boards, watermelons, even coconuts. But imagine what a simultaneous impact of six of them can cause!

The Slingshot Channel presents "The Avalaunche" - the first slingshot crossbow that shoots six rounds at the same time. One trigger pull and all six are on their way to the target.

The weapon is big and has an enormous draw length. This means the six balls hit with about 60 Joules each. Enough power to demolish several objects! As always the video contains slow motions recorded at 40x realtime (1200 fps).

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFAjaymQM0