Pump Action Pencil Launcher

[JoergS]

A pencil can be very dangerous - when The Slingshot Channel builds a weapon around it!

The "Nerd Revenge 2000" is a homemade pump action slingshot crossbow that can fire 10 razor sharp pencil in under five seconds. The "arrows" travel at an impressive 100 miles per hour, fast enough to go through an
apple!

The compact weapon (24" = 60cm) can also fire a "devilled" version if a pencil, with an achery field tip glued in. Then the once so harmless pencil is turned into a deadly projectile!

The design was inspired by the Chinese Repeating Crossbow, but the awkward repeating action has been replaced by the far better "pump gun" method. The rubber bands are pre-tensed to 300% and stretched to 500% when you shoot. This means you get good power at a relatively compact size. My experiments with super slomos and the thermal test series laid the
ground for this new concept.

This is probably the most fun slingshot I ever shot!

[Ad'lan]

Everything from the name on is perfect.

Did you try some fletched arrows?

And a Lovely Robin Hood by the way.

[JoergS]

Fletched arrows would not work, the magazine has no room for them, neither has the barrel.

But I found that the short "arrows" fly very straight as long as the tip is heavy enough. Up until 20 meters, everything is fine without fletching. Longer distances aren't viable anyway.

A friend of mine is an avid archer, he says that a good arrow will fly straight without fletching, too, for 25 meters or so. Makes sense to me.

[marbhán marfóir]

wow, you need to call up Nerf and tell them you have a prototype for a new nerf launcher.

and then after you get paid from Nerf, you need to go buy me a Ruf CTR2 and ship it here to the US.

Kthx!

[jamoni]

Nice "apple dance".

[Jeriah]

I'm thinking of the Marilyn Manson song, "Lunchbox."

"I've got my pencil in my pocket and I'm armed real well."

[Regular Guy]

Why do I get a nervous giddy feeling when Joerg says "Let's do the classic William Tell thing" and "It's just so good, I can't stop."

Edit: Awesome, loved it.

[Crazy Wolf]

Fletched arrows would not work, the magazine has no room for them, neither has the barrel.

But I found that the short "arrows" fly very straight as long as the tip is heavy enough. Up until 20 meters, everything is fine without fletching. Longer distances aren't viable anyway.

A friend of mine is an avid archer, he says that a good arrow will fly straight without fletching, too, for 25 meters or so. Makes sense to me.

Does anyone know how well a spiral-designed shaft would work? Three or four continuous "fletchings", twisted to form a long cylinder, merging the functions of the shaft and the fletchings?
Essentially, I'm curious about the flight dynamics of a drill bit.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Fletched arrows would not work, the magazine has no room for them, neither has the barrel.

But I found that the short "arrows" fly very straight as long as the tip is heavy enough. Up until 20 meters, everything is fine without fletching. Longer distances aren't viable anyway.

A friend of mine is an avid archer, he says that a good arrow will fly straight without fletching, too, for 25 meters or so. Makes sense to me.

Does anyone know how well a spiral-designed shaft would work? Three or four continuous "fletchings", twisted to form a long cylinder, merging the functions of the shaft and the fletchings?
Essentially, I'm curious about the flight dynamics of a drill bit.

Give a few days and I'm sure Joerg will have made a drill bit launching slingshot.

Is there anything he can't launch from a slingshot ? I'm still waiting on the one that launches cars.

[Acquisitor]

Rating for this slingshot: Four minutes of uninterrupted maniacal laughter.

I need a DVD of these videos; and a machete slingshot, and a plunger slingshot, and a ...

[NamelessStain]

Nice spinoff of the repeating crossbow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow

[JoergS]

I just had to do it. Against all odds.

I doubled up the rubber.

Now we are talking!

The stronger bandset pushes the weapon into the realm of deadly weapons. The pencils now go through a rubber door mat, which withstands the 20 mm steel ball hits from my strongest slingshots!

As a matter of coincidence, some better quality pencils arrived (Faber-Castell HB, 1,18 Euros for twelve pieces including tax). Much more solid. Just in time.

But in order to push the envelope even farther I took a damaged carbon fibre arrow shaft, sawed it into five pieces and glued tip holders in. Then I screwed the field tips in. The arrows now weigh 9,6 gramms (154 gr).

The impact is absolutely astounding. They go into a massive wooden plank and I need tools to get them out again. They even pierced through a PET water bottle and still stuck in the plank. Distance 8 meters, the flight is absolutely stable. This is now a viable Zombie killer.

I reinforced the string catchers (glued in a steel nail in fact), so the weapon withstands the much harder impact of the 300% pretensed bands (3,5 cm x 2,5 cm x 11 cm relaxed length).

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Can I be on your team when the zombies rise up, JoergS ?

Would a drill bit work being launched from that launcher or would they be too heavy ?

[JoergS]

A drill bit would be too short, the projectiles need to be at least 14 cm long for the magazine action. Otherwise, no, I can fire heavy objects just fine.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

A drill bit would be too short, the projectiles need to be at least 14 cm long for the magazine action. Otherwise, no, I can fire heavy objects just fine.

So if the drill bits were at least 14 cm long, they would work ?

Sounds interesting.

[JoergS]

Probably. But the CF arrows with the heavy tips fly as straight as can be.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Not to mention they're cheaper to use than a bunch of drill bits.

Lose a pencil and you're out 10 cents. Lose a drill bit and you're out 5 bucks.

[TheLastRifleMan]

Saw this yesterday on YouTube.

Just full of awesomeness.

[azrael99]

i can only agree. why can't i have one ?

I WANT TO MAKE IT. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JoergS]

I am now working on a version for "real men". I don't want to promise too much for now, but if it works it will be outrageous.

[xLionx]

I made up a rumor that they are going to outlaw pencils because of this.

[JoergS]

Probably not outlaw pencils, but they will probably require a permit. And a cool down period should you want to buy one. And of course you need to lock it in a safe should you not use it.

[phil_in_cs]

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

I am commissioning a cathedral in your honour O Great Joerg.

So much awesome.

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