Introduction: Rubber Band Gun
I came across "Slivki Show" on youtube, where the host shared "10 awesome gadgets to buy from Aliexpress"
I was really amazed by few for these gadgets, one of them was a rubber band gun. I did not know of such gadget existed and wanted to have it... Ordering from Aliexpress would mean to wait for few weeks and I did not want to wait. The construction looked simple, so I did an extensive research for few hours and decided to make one..
In this instructable, I will share how I made one using scrap wood, Jig saw and sandpaper
Please vote for me
Step 1: What Do We Need ?
Materials and Tools
- 5 mm plywood
- 10 mm plywood
- Spring from old pen
- Tooth picks
- PVA glue / Fevicol
- G Clamps
- Sandpaper
- Nail filer ( borrowed from my wife's drawer)
- Jig Saw
- Screws
Step 2: Design
- My Design is inspired by RBGUNS.com... at least the overall logic
- I am not using any software here so sharing my hand drawings
- Key changes
- Shape
- Dimensions
- Trigger is spring based not rubber band
- Screws for tweaking / maintenance
- In short changed the everything design
- Why did I make my own design
- I did not want to cut multiple plywood and stick them, as I am not skilled enough
- I had just enough 5 mm and 10 mm plywood
- Mechanism
- The rubber bands are held in place using the teeth on the body
- when the trigger is pressed, it pushed the rubber band outwards to skip the tooth and move to the next one
- To avoid too many skips, the trigger must also have teeth
- When the last tooth is skipped the rubber band shots off
Step 3: The Body
- Draw the template from previous step on a A4 sheet
- paste them on the wooden planks using glue-stick
- Cut the left , right side and the middle parts of the body as shown
- Glue the middle and right side and leave to dry for 2 hours
- Screw the left side as shown, this will help us to tweak and maintain
- Sand the edges down with a 80 grit sandpaper and then 180
Step 4: Trigger
- Since I didn't use any software, I had to construct the body first and then make the trigger
- Trigger needs to move back and forward without wobbling and with enough space to trigger rubber band skip teeth
- Mark the min and max teeth space as shown in the picture
- Cut the teeth in the trigger, which is offset by half of the distance between teeth
- Drill a hole from the body in to the trigger as shown
- Add a small spring to push the trigger front
- Secure using a toothpick, this avoids wobbling too
Step 5: Test and Lessons
The tests went well, I have added a video in the first step
I have shared a video
Lessons
- The trigger needs to push rubber band further by 5mm
- If you cut the teeth incorrectly you can use match sticks or popsicle sticks to correct them
- Sand the teeth on the body by 45 degree or more
- Rubber bands have to be with good elasticity, old rubber bands do not work well
- Teeths does not have to be taping, they could be just grooves, which will reduce a lot of effort
I liked making this project, please share if you have a better design that I could try out with more than 10 rubber bands