The SlingaLaunch - A Drill Powered Machine Gun

In eight days (August 22nd), one of the most interesting crowd funding campaigns ever will end. The Slingatron, a launcher that uses the methods employed by the ancient "david sling" to launch small objects into the orbit.

See it on Kickstarter

It is far from completion, and I want to give it a boost. This weekend, my adaption will premiere on YouTube. You guys get a preview, as always - the priviledges of fellow forum members.

Here is my "SlingaLaunch"!

This sample is experimental, very small (just 50cm is diameter). It is powered by a drill. Inside of the thing, there is a lever that rotates, and a track system that is "chambered" for 25 mm steel balls.

The track system allows the lever to "gently" accelerate the steel ball to the exit velocity, which is significant - even in this small scale model. I haven't found a single steel ball back that I have launched with it so far :)

Here you see into the "muzzle", with a steel ball just about to exit.

This is the lever that has just shot out the ball.

Here you can see the spiral like tracks.

These are the cutouts - one heck of a saw job for sure. The tracks (negatives of these) have been filed and sanded of course.

It works great. Now I have to make the bullet feeder, to turn this beast into a full auto steel ball launcher. I hope the video will bring in some money for the guys! Using slingshot technology to launch stuff into space? I HAVE to suppport them.