Natural Dogwood Howitzer: Done.

Finished it yesterday, came out very good. It is amazing how strong that dogwood is. Even the hooks ("triggers") are solid, solid, solid.

BTW, this was the fork I made it from:

Also, I bought two more breakfast boards made from olive wood. Should be enough for at least four shooters. I love the grain, the smell and the texture of that wood. 

What's your guess...

I am working on another "natural" version from one of my designs. I finished the raw cutting job this morning, lots of work ahead still - but you can see the slingshot emerging.

So what do you think:

a) What is this slingshot made from? Hint: It once was a natural fork, and NOT catwood...
b) What is the name of the design? Hint: NOT the palm cannon.

:)

Germany: New Dankung Importer

I just found out that there is a new Dankung importer in Germany. I'll switch to German now, as this is of interest only for my German followers.

Also, es gibt einen neuen Schleudershop in D! Sieht nicht übel aus. Das Beste ist: Es gibt auch Thera Gold Bandsets zu kaufen - nicht mal teuer.

Hier geht's zur Webseite von SooSoo

Ich habe noch keinen Kontakt aufgenommen, aber ein gutes Gefühl bei der Sache. Eine kurze google-Suche fördert zu Tage, dass der Inhaber (oder seine Ehefrau) eine schnuckelige kleine Hundepension im Norden betreiben.

Wir brauchen solche shops, weil eben nicht jeder in der Lage ist, sich selbst zu versorgen - oder einfach keine Lust/Zeit hat.

Ich wünsche dem Team von SooSoo viel Erfolg!

New natural came out great

Made this little natural after work, just needed the physical activity. It has been a while since I made my last frame, too.

Cornus sanguinea of course (European dogwood). This time, one of the limbs had obviously been dying, which added beautiful patterns to the frame.

The shape is most comfortable and pleasing. There is really no reason why a slingshot has to be any larger than that one. The palm swell works great for both hammer grip and finger support style.

Banded it up with a half butterfly double TB gold band, seems to be the right dimension for this great shooter.

Inner tubing: A comeback?

I recently tested inner tubing from bikes, not a very good slingshot band material. Unstretchy and slow.

But now I learned that until WW2, inner tubings were made from natural latex, until the shortages lead to using a material called butyl rubber as a substitute. That substitude was then kept to this day.

Except that some high end guys are using latex again, simply because they believe that it is lighter and has less rolling resitance.

Read about the inner tubing history here

So I bought the best stuff I could find (a whole 28" tubing set weighs less than 60 gramms =  960 gr) and it arrived today!

I immediately checked it out and it is VERY PROMISING. It stretches more far than TB Gold (about 65%) and feels more linear until the very end of the stretch. I banded a Panther up with 15cm effective draw, untapered. 5 kg draw! And fast. Probably the fastest tubular rubber I ever tested.

As soon as I have some time, I will make a tapered butterfly set and test the heck out of it.

How to make + shoot the bullpup crossbow

The winner is...

John S.

Congrats! PM me on the forum for the details.

Now, the 150-posts-contest will start, means that the weekly drawings are suspended until the ten winners are found.

Jörg

More fun with the slingshot cannon

I left the cannon at Tobias's farm, as I don't really have enough place for it at home.

The boys sorted out the small issues we ran into at the first shooting, and gave the little French car its final bombardment! Looks like they had a ton of fun.

Great video editing, too!

Inner tubing and office rubber vs. TB Gold

On many requests, I made a comparison between different rubber types.

The task: A bandset that everybody can draw. I settled for 5 kg draw (12 lbs) and 85 cm draw length (33").

Made a bandset from inner tubing, office rubber and TB Gold.

The outcome is interesting!

See the data over at the forum


Watch the video over at youtube

A manly bandset for a manly crossbow

Six layers of TB Gold, 2,8cm (fork) x 1,8cm (pouch). Draw is about 80 lbs.

This is for tomorrow's video about the bullpup.

Bullpup Crossbow: Done

I have finished the weapon.

The Camo paint came out nice, looks way cooler I think (plus it is protected against rain now).

Video soon!

"Swing" Mounted Scope Added

Added a scope. Of course one of the trusted German Army Surplus G36 scopes, 5 bucks a pop.

I glued it to a wooden ring, which in turn was glued to a 6mm bolt.

The swing arm is running very tightly on an axis made from 6mm aluminum tubing, no play in the mechanism. A rubber band holds it into place.

The scope is attached to the swing arm with the bolt, which allows me to adjust the aim left-right and up-down.

The swing arm makes it possible to draw back the bands without any problems, as the scope is out of the way.

It is very accurate!

Seems like the finishing job is ahead of me.

Jörg

Bullpup Sling-X-Bow: Front enhanced

Have added two bent metal rods to the front part, so the bands do not slip off, but stay on the rollers. This allows a much faster reloading.

Plus, it adds safety. In the unlikely event a roller breaks off, the rods (that are bolted onto the stirrup assembly) will prevent them from flying towards the shooter's face.

Leonardo's Giant Crossbow - 1:100 toy model

The set arrived today, I couldn't wait to put it together.

See the photos over at the forum


Came out nice!

The Slingshot Channel now has a forum!

That is right, finally I have my own forum.

Check it out here!

Can you post commercial stuff? Sure, but no spam please.

Can you post hunting stuff or dangerous constructions? Sure. Why not?

Is it drama free? I hope not! How boring...

Is it provocation free? Not in this life.  Boooring.

Can Jörg do whatever he wants? Yes, he can. Go on my nerves and I will say "thanks and bye bye, off you go".

Is it clique free? Right now it is (just me and Thomas, my web designer), but I promise that will change. Cliques are actually the salt in the stale soup of society.

How is it different, then? Well - it is mostly for my fans, not necessarily a place for the entire community to meet. Everybody is welcome, as long as there is no foul language.

It isn't finished, and also I have to fill in my videos (a big part of the forum). But you are welcome to use it!

I will also do some raffles soon, in order to boost membership.

Jörg

Leonardo's Giant Crossbow Challenge - First Sketch

The "Da Vinci" project is slowly maturing.

The book about Leonardo's giant crossbow arrived,

See the book on Amazon

and also I found the original documentary from ITN Factual Television (2002), which was telecast in Germany by The Discovery Channel a few years back.

Very insightful. Turns out that da Vinci never built the thing, he only sketched it out for the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, sometime between 1482 and 1492. Interesting: He promised that it will shoot a 100 lbs (44kg) stone ball (roughly 12" or 31 cm diameter) 28 yards (25 meters) far, and a 10lbs (4,4kg) ball 280 yards (250 meters) far.

The ITN team had three months and probably more than 10 craftsmen to build the crossbow. I think they spent at least 100,000 Euros. A fail, in the end. The 20 lbs ball they used did not even fly 20 yards. Then the prod broke, so they gave up. Pathetic attempt, really.

Just for the fun of it, I ordered a 1:100 scale plastic model of the Giant Crossbow, can't wait.

Here it is on amazon

Anyway, I want to make a slingshot cannon that exceeds the ancient promise, and I want to do it in three WEEKS, not months. With hopefully just two assitants. For under 3,000 Euros.

This will be pretty much a variation of my previous slingshot cannon, with a few changes. I sketched it for the Tapefilm guys, who need to find a TV channel as a buyer (sorry for the German text).

- Length will be 7 meters total, 6 meters stretch.
- Four wheels
- 500 kg to 1000 kg draw weight (1,100 to 2,200 lbs)
- Adjustable shooting angle
- Ratchet like cocking mechanism (not enough room for a four arms "cross" winch)

If all goes well, this can be done before the winter kicks in (early November 2011).

My brother, who is a physicist, figured out that I will be able to shoot the 100lbs ball about 34 meters with 500kg draw. I absolutely can't wait to feel the earth shaking when that ball hits the ground!




 

Rubber - a good power source for crossbows?

I recently found the "Arbalist Guild" forum, a meeting place for crossbow builders.

They started a new subforum for slingshot crossbows. I decided to contribute to that forum.

It seemed appropriate to share my experiences regarding rubber in general. Pros and cons! I think it came out pretty good. See for yourself.

Read the post at the Arbalist forum

The "Sneak Preview" video about the bullpup sling-x-bow...

is here:

Watch it on youtube

Assault slingshot - it works!

Got it to work, but not in time for the whole how-to. Shot a "teaser" today, will be up on youtube later. The How-To will follow next Sunday.

In the teaser, I used "light" triple TB gold bands (the heaviest I can pull on a conventional slingshot), but in the attached photos I doubled the bands... six layers of TB Gold per side.

I estimate the power with these bands to be around 80 Joules. The second pic shows it in comparison with the "old" sling-x-bow design, far weaker, but at more than twice as long. The better is the natural enemy of the good.

This will need


a) More finishing work (sanding)
b) a cool paint job
c) scopes.

Should all be done til next week!

One of my finest weapons.

The winner is...

RobertP!

Congrats. A well deserved price.

Let me know your choice (Panther or Cougar) per youtube PM.

BTW, I will have to add a theoretical value to the slingshots now, received two parcels with prices back from the US because customs did not let them pass. Will re-send, with a pro-forma value of 20 dollars. Don't worry, the slingshots are free, this is just so customs are satisfied.

Jörg

OK, Assault Sling-X-Bow instead of Angry Birds

The Piggies didn't arrive... and the cold is bad.

Will try to make the how-to about the assault slingshot crossbow this weekend, but the work is going slow due to the nasty cold.

I will shape the weapon much after the Steyr AUG 77, one of my favorite designs. Just over 60 cm total length (24"), very very compact but powerful, due to the rollers and the bullpup design. Every inch of the weapon will be used for the acceleration of the ball.

I think there will be a time before and after the release of this how-to... finally, a short, powerful and accurate sling-x-bow that everybody can make at home, with very few common tools and a bit of plywood.

Stay tuned!

Angry Birds for real?

"Angry Birds" is a fun game for several smartphones and pads that I enjoy very much. You shoot giant birds from an equally giant fixed mounted slingshot and destroy structures this way, "killing" cute animals like pigs and gremlins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds

This seems too much fun to not exploit it in a video. So I have ordered a good amount of piggy banks (made from ceramics) on ebay today, and will build a shooting scenario just like the ones in the game.

Then I plan on dressing heavy lead or steel balls like birds and shoot away.

This should be fun! Hope the porcelain pigs will arrive in time for this weekend's video.

Oh, BTW, I just arrived back from a long and important business trip and now I have a nasty cold (not uncommon after a show, all the loud talking and tons of germs). But I nevertheless drew this week's winner...

Porcelanowy!

Congrats.

New slingshot from common dogwood

After the slingshot cannon, I really only had like one evening time to make one more frame before I have to go on a weeklong business trip to Berlin.

I took one of my common dogwood naturals that I harvested a few weeks ago, sawed it into a rough shape and microwaved the remaining moisture out of it. Then I took the knife and rasp to it.

After the polishing, I saw some small cracks, very normal for a hardwood like that. No big deal, simply filled them with epoxy.

Banded it up with a triple TB Gold butterfly bandset, ready to achieve energy levels over 90 Joules.

Bowling Ball Slingshot based on Leonardo Da Vinci' Design?

Seems like the slingshot cannon video will soon be viral. It saw 45,000 views in the first 36 hours already, with a steep increase! People love it, almost 1300 likes and just 6 dislikes...

I was just covered in "Stern View Magazin", a German magazine focussed very much on photos (only a few lines of text). Two pages! They said that the only challenge I did not master was to make a bowling ball slingshot...

The Discovery History Channel did a project a few years back, about building two of Leonardo's designs - the glider and also the giant crossbow. The glider worked, but the crossbow did not. The wooden limbs broke, weren't elastic enough.

Using a ton of rubber instead of the wood would no doubts work much better.

What do you think?

This week's winner is...

..."mckeee"!


Congratulations. Please PM me your address and your choice in slingshots (Panther or Cougar).

Finally. At last. See the cannon in action.

This was probably the most exhausting, but also the most satisfying and fun vacation week I ever had.

It took four days to build the cannon, and then one more day of basic filming with the great guys from The Tapefilm Crew before we brought the cannon to its playground - Tobias's wonderful farm.

He drove the weapon to his romantic apple orchards, on the hottest day Germany saw in the whole year... and then we fired it. Fired it. Fired it some more. Did I mention that we fired it a lot? :)

The performance of this thing is amazing. We did not exceed the strength of 36 conventional "hunterband" catapults (18 times the draw weight and twice the draw length), as it was getting tough to cock the mechanism even though we used long crank handles.

See for yourself:

Watch the video on youtube!

We had a blast that day, even added a full blown slingshot tournament with several different challenges in the evening. I drank less beer than Tobias and even half cheated in one discipline (couldn't resist), but he nevertheless beat me 94:91  - the guy is just a great shooter, hats off.

Now I will go back to my job, a big show next week. But I am much relaxed, having achieved something I started to work on like 9 months ago.

Plunger-Slingshot: Watch it on German TV

Here:


 Galileo Extreme: Plungers

EDIT:
For those who do not live in Germany, the video won't play. But do not despair, "Milchi" has downloaded the essential parts and uploaded them on youtube, here:  Thanks, Milchi!

(Sorry for the German audio)

Ready for some action!

I have newfound respect for cart makers.

I had underestimated how much work it is to make a simple, minimalistic carriage. Fitting the axis into the antique wheels was hard to begin with. Making the hub was not easy, too - especially adjusting the distances.

Then, I found that the forces on the wheels when you try to turn the cannon to the left or right are tremendous. After all, the axis is fixed and the wheels do not turn individually. I had to make a solid fitting from flat steel just to solve that issue.

The whole thing shoots very well, and reloading is fast and easy. But it does look a bit spindly, really. But I assure you it is quite heavy, probably over 100 kg.

Film team tomorrow, and then off to Tobias's farm on Friday. Will see if we can make the cannon a bit better looking. The spindly look is unacceptable.

It is alive!

Yes, despite the sweltering heat, I did my dues and have done the first test shots today. The winch assembly is finished, and very solid (have to cut off the excess steel tube and bolts). I tested the mechanism by pulling back (against the lock) on the crank handle with all my strength, it holds.



No carriage still, so I can not cock it more than 85% (the sled hits the stands at that point). And I "only" used two layers of full with TB Gold per side, one fifth of what I am hoping to do in the end. 

It shoots!  And it exceeds my wildest dreams.

Sorry, no impact pics yet because I don't want to spoil the tension, but this thing is ab-so-lute-ly awesome. I rarely say that about my own stuff, but in this case there is just no way I can downplay the awesomeness.

Tomorrow, the carriage assembly and some minor optmizations. Stay tuned. 

Day 2: The Cannon "Barrel" Assembly is done

A hot day, sweaty work... but I got it done. The frame is finished. I even found enough time to start on the crank handle. The "cross" is made from 12 mm solid steel, 33cm at each side, strengthened by a 16 mm steel tube in the critical first 15 cm. This is all welded together, very strong.

Transmission of the crank is 26:1, means, if I go up to 500 kg (1100 lbs) of a draw, I have to pull with 19 kg (42 lbs) force at the end of the handles, very doable. 

I decided to go with the clamp-on attachment method, will increase safety be using a round rod as an additional "wedge". This is the strongest known attachment method.

Tomorrow, the winch has to be finished, and the two drawing ropes have to be installed. With some luck, the weapon will be able to fire tomorrow evening. Wednesday is reserved for the carriage assembly.