RBG's

[The Medway Handyman]

Great fun last night, taught my granddaughter (6) to fire rubber bands from her index finger.

(before anyone asks, we did wear eye protection, ear defenders, safety gloves, body armour etc)

Now we want rubber band guns! But they have to be home made (DIY). Google reveals loads we could buy, but there are only a few online you can build yourself.

Anyone got any good designs?

[George]

And in not time at all you'll find they're firing staples at passers by.

What kind of father are you?

[Colin Wilson]

There's a good site at

- not sure whether it'll do rubber band guns, but I did see a video a couple of months ago where someone had made a rubber band machine gun (!) which fired hundreds per minute.

[Gordon Henderson]

Model 1 - fires rubber bands.

3-4 wooden clothes pegs - clipped to each other in a line. Loop rubber band over the end, and stretch it back to the last one where you can squeeze the peg and put it under the end.

Aim, squeeze, run :)

Model 2 - fires paper pellets

You need a pencil, or wodden dowel, 8-9" long. Selotape and 3-4 wooden pegs. Large postage stamp bits of paper

Take long rubber band and selotape at to each end of the dowel (Think bow and arrow, although we're making a crossbow)

Clip peg to middle of dowel, making sure band is above. Clip 2-3 more pegs behind first one in a long line.

Fold paper over a few times to get a long pellet. Fold this in half. Put pellet in rubber band and stretch it back and locate it under last peg.

Aim, squeeze, run :)

Experimentation is the key here - dowel length vs. rubber band length (and strength) vs. number of pegs. It's a bit self-limiting though as the more pegs there are, the easier it will colapse on itself when you try to hook the rubber band under the last one.

Gordon

[Frank Erskine]

That could be useful, to fire them back at postmen who leave them lying around all over the place...:-)

[Rod]

But what about assessment for latex allergy? :-)

(Actually it *is* starting to be a major problem.)

Can you get decent non-latex RBs?

[Andy Burns]

[Peter Parry]

for something different

[Huge]

Someone at my last place of employ had a rubber band Gatling gun on a tripod next to his desk. Huge fun, but a right pain to reload.

[Baz]

[Vortex2]

This is a job for Lego

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

I have a twelve-incher.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "George" saying something like:

Exactly. I certainly wouldn't want to be hit on the head by a large office supplies chain.

Hopefully, not a po-faced one.

[The Medway Handyman]

Thats our ammunition source! When Hayleigh aka 'H' comes round to stay she rides he bike up & down the cul de sac collecting rubber bands :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

thats just what I wanted, thanks Peter.

[The Medway Handyman]

Errm Grandfather actually. There is a clue in the phrase 'taught my granddaughter'.

[Lobster]

So you've managed to become a grandfather without being a father, eh? Interesting...

[Lobster]

I'm sure you have, but do you have any good designs?

[The Medway Handyman]

Genius! Its ingenuity like this that made the British Empire great!

Thanks Gordon.