Halloween project: Rooftop Zombie Annihalator Slingshot

Halloween is in a few days... so I had to decide what kind of "special" I have to offer to my fans this time.

Following the superfly hype Gary "Flatband" Miller started recently, I took the idea to the extreme. I want to achieve a draw of, say, 4 or 5 meters, around 15 feet.

How do I do this? Well, see my sketch.

Tamed: Buttless starship on a leash

The buttless starship may be legal in Germany, but it is a bitch when it comes to controllability. It "wants" to turn upwards, and even with light bands is hard to shoot it.

Then came the rope idea. Attached to the front, and beeing trod on, you have total control. There is even less shaking than on freehand shooting!

I have attached two layers of TB Gold, cut 45cm x2,8 cx 1,8cm, with 12 kg (26.4lbs) draw. Easy to control!

I encourage even the wrist brace starship shooters to try this simple mod. I think it may be good for control = accuracy. As you can see, it is easy to change your aim simply by moving your body a bit. No resetting of the foot is needed.

Can Marbles Kill?

They can - if fired from a powerful slingshot.

Marbles are often used as alternative slingshot ammo. In this regard, The Slingshot Channel tests two very common myths:

- Can marbles penetrate flesh?
- Will marbles shatter when they hit a hard surface?

These myths are checked out, using ballistic gelatin and a solid wall. See the harmless looking glass balls tearing the gelatin into shreds, and see how they chip stone shards from a massive rock...

The message is clear: Marbles are about as dangerous as steel balls when fired from a powerful slingshot.

Starship without butt

A "Starship" is the slingshot term for a forwards extended slingshot. As the wrist strain would be enormously high without a wrist brace, starships always have such a brace, and look a bit like the Enterprise NCC 1701 - hence the name.

Gary ("Flatband") recently started to play with full butterfly starship shooting, a new style he calls "Superfly". Now I have to try that too! Unfortunately arm braces are illegal in Germany.

So I used and older design of mine (the "Gloveshot"), because that concept avoids unwanted turning of the slingshot in the hand. Much needed for these not undangerous experiments! I simply sawed off the original "fork arms" and attached a 50 cm draw extension (20").

It works! Takes practice, and even weak bands are kind of hard on the muscles in my forarm. But hey, everything for power!

Stainless Steel.

My wife hates it when I make a steel slingshot...

It is loud. It stinks. It is dirty.

Today, she was at the University, and I HAD to make a steel frame... it's been a long time.

Steel is so much more demanding. It takes a long time to "carve" the shape out of it, and the parts get very hot, too. But in the end, you get rewards galore. Unbreakable. Shiny. Hefty. Unique.


I made this one from a 12 mm and a 30 mm stainless steel rod, drilled the handle out for the fork and welded everything shut. The angle grinder got a lot to do.

I did not polish this to a high shine, just 80 grit - looks "business", and is not slippery at all.

It has the low forks of the Howitzer, deadly effective.

Natural Demon Hunter

One more frame from the Dogwood tree...

I came to love the Demon Hunter design, it is so sensual and ergonomic.

I just had to make a natural version! It was quite some work... as always, a big clumsy fork, and a delicate result. See for yourself.

Invisible weapons: The video

Invisible here means: Not detectable by metal detection portals at airports.

That's right, I wanted to find out what non metal knifes and non metal slingshot ammo can do to a block of ballistic gelatin.

I started out with the gorgeous flint knife Ad'lan from the Zombie forum made for me (we traded a while ago), and then went on and tested a dogwood knife (my own handiwork), a Cold Steel "Grivory" knife (plastics) and a Kyocera ceramics knife. Then, I tested what pebbles do to the gelatin, in comparison to steel and lead.

All of the knifes proved to be dangerous, even the wooden one. The Cold Steel was the best stabber, the ceramics knife the best slasher. The pebbles penetrated the gelatin about two inches deep (the metal balls went straight through).

My conclusion: Either allow everybody to take a knife aboard, or increase security. It is simply too easy for criminals and terrorists to smuggle weapons through security.

Now lots of people commented that there is metal in the ceramics and grivory knife. That is a myth. Cold Steel attached a (removable) key ring to the knife, that is all. The whole knife (w/o the key ring) weighs only about 30 gramms, just twice as much as my wedding ring. Not heavy enough to trigger the detectors even if HALF the knife would be metal.

And there is NO metal in the small Kyocera ceramics knife. I checked.

What do YOU think should be done? Increase security, or legalize on board weapons?

Invisible - but effective?

I recently had to board an airplane, and while I went through security people talked about the new body scanners.

Which got me thinking. The terrorists from 9-11 had box cutters that they smuggled through security. Now that would probably (hopefully) no longer work today. The metal detectors are very sensitive and beep at the tiniest steel part.

But most people walk through the metal detector and never get frisked. Only about every 4th person gets randomly selected.

So I thought about weapons that can be smuggled through the metal scanners. Slingshots with stones or marbles as ammo come to mind, but also knifes made from non metal components.

So I decided to make a ballistic gelatin based test: Slingshot and rocks, a wonderful flint knife I traded with Ad'lan from the Zombie hunters, a Cold Steel "Grivory" knife, a Kyocera ceramics knife and a home made dogwood knife.

Should be an interesting test! If the outcome is what I expect (all of these weapons are fairly effective against an unarmed human), then full body scanners and/or mandatory frisking should be employed. Otherwise, terrorists still have options.

BTW, the bands on my CF slingshot are still the originals... made them in March 2010, 17 months ago. They have lost a bit of their color, but they are still fully intact. The Hygenic corp makes some great rubber, that's for sure.

The stones weigh between 15 and 25 gramms, not bad...

10 million views - probably today!

My channel has exceeded my wildest expectations. Very soon, I will be a member of the "Club 10 Million" - not so many youtubers ever get to that count. A friend of mine said a few days ago: "You know, Jörg, you get more people to watch your new weekly videos than some of the German premier league ("Bundesliga") football (soccer) clubs".

Now if you only count the stadium audience, that is correct... quiet astounding!

Here is the view count chart for the channel (factual for Sept. 31st, 2011) .

 

EDIT: OK, it happened... in the wee hours of the 14th. 

Featured on the Discovery Channel (Canada)!

You may remember that the film team was here when I made the iPhone shooter. They have aired the piece yesterday, came out fantastic!

Here:

Watch it on the Discovery Channel (CA) website

(Sorry for the commercial)

Pump Slingshot - The Video!

"Raw" Slide finished - weapon fully functional!

I came home late from work tonite (7 PM or so), but simply HAD to make a raw slide in order to test the action.

It works! Full blown pump gun feeling and everything. Shot about ten rounds without any problems. The racking action is very light, even with two bands per side. It will be easy to upgrade to three bands per side, giving the weapon serious power.

This "eats" bands right now as everything is rough and edgy, but I love it already. Next weekend, I will be returning from a biz trip late on Saturday, but hopefully I will make the necessary enhancements (rasping... filing... sanding... painting) in time for the Sunday nite video.

I promise you an epic slingshot.

Pump Gun Slingshot: First test firing!

Guys, this is gonna work.

I completed the raw weapon, minus the racking slide. Banded it up with dual TB gold. The "barrel" is a bit longer than I planned, 95 cm from lock to fork.

I "mimicked" the racking slide with my hands and fingers, it works very fine! Of course I have to clamp the weapon into the vise to do that, but a ball was cleanly loaded behind the lock and the trigger held without any issues.

I fired six rounds, and not one problem arose.

Will make the slide next. Of course, if everything works, then I have tons of cosmetics to do before this will be a looker, too - right now, functionality comes first.

I will probably have to make a steel version in case this baby is reliable.

Review: The Fish "Wasp"

"Gothic": Evolution of a design

The moor oak for Robert arrived, but was unusable, too brittle. Will order from a different supplier.

But in order to test the design some more, I made another version in "full tang", with a Purple Heart Core and Olive Wood scales.

The Purple heart came as a thick board, I had to slice a part off - this took some precision handsaw work. Ever tried to saw a board in half, lengthwise, so you get two thinner boards? Not easy. Took me a while to file it flat so I could laminate the olive wood onto it.

It came out fantastic! The hard, tough Purple Heart allowed me to file the tip needle sharp, so the frame doubles as a "vampire stake". The grain of the olive wood comes out real well with the "female" curves I shaped this into. One of the nicest slingshots I made so far, and also one of the most ergonomical hammer grip frames.

Pump Gun Slingshot: Design Process started

Some of you may know that one of the goals I still have is to make a repeating slingshot crossbow.

I want to try my hands on a new design this long weekend (Monday is a holiday in Germany).

Here are my first paper cutouts.., just the system and a part of the barrel. The weapon will be "chambered" for 20 mm steel balls and have a mag capacity of 10 shots. It can be outfitted with flat bands or tubes. I will use a "barrel" length of 86 cm, with 68 cm acceleration phase.

Hope this will work... wish me luck!

It's dogwood - but NOT a slingshot!

Tried my hands on a simple wooden knife - came out OK.

Demon Hunter banded up

Made a nice bandset for the Demon Hunter tonite, from three layers of TB Black per side.

Looks great, feels great, and probably shoots great - no time to test, in spite of the warm weather the sun goes down early already. No more shooting after 7 PM.

The "Demon Hunter" Design line

I have agreed to do a trade with Robert, the owner of Rockstonedleather.

He will make me a custom watch (I can't find good commercial ones as my wrist is too thick, almost 10" diameter).


Now Robert loves gothic "hard rock" designs, obviously. So I came up with a Phoenix variation, slightly "Van Helsing'ed".

I just wanted to make a quick and dirty test frame, used some plywood and some leftover olive wood parts as scales. Inked it black, then added some bronze "coffin" nails I had lying around.

It came out really good! I am blown away about how comfortable the frame is.

Have ordered 2000 year old moor oak for the one I am going to make for Robert... it will be even nicer than this one.

Lots of shooting, slingshots and cats

A new video is online!

This time, the pulley based draw length extension employed by the Bullpup Sling-X-Bow has been brought over to a conventional slingshot. 32 cm (13") of additional acceleration make this camo painted huge frame a true performer.

Both weapons are shot through the chrony, and the crossbow won by only a few percent.

The original design is from Mr. Robert Blair, it is called the "ComBow". The Slingshot Channel converted Mr. Blair's invention for the much faster flatbands, and also for the far more powerful "butterfly" shooting style. The result is a stronger slingshot, but it is also pretty bulky.

The video shows to more frames carved from dogwood, and a hand protection "glove". The slingshots are all used against a 75% empty 5 liter beer barrel. The beer was no longer drinkable, but good enough for the slomo cam to take some nice shots.

Afraid of hitting your hand?

"You will hit your hand" is one of the most common statements I get as comments on my videos. It actually happened a few times. A band snapped at the wrong moment, at release, and the ball went slightly off, for example.  

Just for fun, I designed a cuff that protects your hand. This model is for hammer grip style shooting, but of course it can be adapted for the finger support style as well.

The leather is 6mm cowhide, bought a ton of it on ebay. It is very tough, no slingshot ball can penetrate it. Can't make a full glove from it, it is not flexible enough.

I can and will optimze this further. Velcro comes to mind, or rubber. 

A Tribute to Robert Blair

OK, I wanted to make a handheld version of the sling-x-bow with rollers.

Of course flatbands, and also of course with pulleys. This design requires more attention to make the bands stay safely on the rollers, as the draw will be much more irregular than that of the crossbow, with the strirrup and the two handed draw.

So I shaped the rollers liek hour glasses, and added guides for the bands. Works pretty good. The thick round pieces of dowel in front of the rollers help to make the bands stay on the pulleys after the shot.

The result very much looks like a flatband version of Robert Blair's ComBow! So I officially bow my head to the master.

Performance is, as expected, about 15% better than using conventional frames. It is a lot more bulky, though.

Painted it "camo" style just like the crossbow, so I can compare both weapons. Video tomorrow!

Latex Inner Tubes - Results

OK, the thicker type arrived, too.

I tested it, and it does work much better than the black Butyl stuff - but not anywhere near as good as TB Gold (or Black or Blue).

It is very stretchy, more so than TB, but it ain't as fast. This butterfly bandset accelerates the 15 mm steel ball to about 50 m/s, same as the office rubber.

Is it expensive? Not really, Costs 10 Euro, and is enough for six or seven bandsets.