Home
I may be new to crossbows specifically, but I'm definitely not new to building and design. If you have any suggestions for me, feel free to throw them at me!
I don't know if I'll become a regular member here because archery is one of my many hobbies, but seeing that Ivo invited me here, I suppose I can start off by sharing my latest weekend project.
(and for those of you on EA, this is copy and pasted
)
Bet you haven't seen something like this! After experimenting with my PVC recurve bows, I figured I could scale down the size, mount it on a wooden stock, and have a simple crossbow built. But wait, that's not fun! And mixing materials bothers me. I'd rather the whole thing be one material...
Thus began the building challenge: to build a crossbow without metal or wood. The only part exempt from this was the trigger, because I highly do not trust using a plastic pin to hold the massive force behind this thing.
After 19 hours, I completed my personal challenge. Not bad for a weekend project, eh?
Here I present the Synthetic Crossbow MK I, medieval style.
Overall, I would say it is a build well done! No money spent - all of it was from scraps. If I did buy the parts, it would probably be around $5. I love cheap builds!
Here's a list of the materials and parts, starting from the front:
- Stirrup - 1/2" PVC pipe flattened and bent to shape. Has a small connector made from 3/4" PVC pipe and hot glue.
- Prods - Tapered 3/4" PVC pipe with a 1" pipe coupling, which is bound to the bow with about 14 wraps of polypropylene twine.
- Bowstring - Countertwist bowstring woven from polypropylene twine with some beeswax.
- Body - Two guides made from 1/2" pipe glued onto 1" pipe for support. The trigger section was ground out afterwards and a 3" ring of pipe was shaped to brace the back of the body.
- Nut - 6 layers of plexiglass hotglued together and carved to shape.
- Trigger - 4 layers of flattened 1/2" PVC pipe glued and ground to shape. Also, three rubberbands attached to the front of the body via a small 1/2" PVC clip reset the trigger.
I've never experimented with PVC and plastics before, so I thought this was a huge success. I love the feel of the trigger being solid plastic, as opposed to bulky wooden ones and cheap cardboard ones I have made in the past (cardboard = models). Here's a close up of the trigger piece in the making:
I'll hopefully be posting a video by tomorrow. Somehow random thunderstorms came out and now it's too wet and dark to film. Be sure to check back for it's power and such!
If I happen to make another synthetic crossbow in the future, it will definitely have a stock and handle and possibly a recurve on it. That should be fun to experiment with.
Any questions? I'll be glad to answer them.
Also, I notice it looks messy with Sharpie and printing all over it. I might just leave it that way.
-CCK
I don't know if I'll become a regular member here because archery is one of my many hobbies, but seeing that Ivo invited me here, I suppose I can start off by sharing my latest weekend project.
(and for those of you on EA, this is copy and pasted
)Bet you haven't seen something like this! After experimenting with my PVC recurve bows, I figured I could scale down the size, mount it on a wooden stock, and have a simple crossbow built. But wait, that's not fun! And mixing materials bothers me. I'd rather the whole thing be one material...
Thus began the building challenge: to build a crossbow without metal or wood. The only part exempt from this was the trigger, because I highly do not trust using a plastic pin to hold the massive force behind this thing.
After 19 hours, I completed my personal challenge. Not bad for a weekend project, eh?
Here I present the Synthetic Crossbow MK I, medieval style.
Overall, I would say it is a build well done! No money spent - all of it was from scraps. If I did buy the parts, it would probably be around $5. I love cheap builds!
Here's a list of the materials and parts, starting from the front:
- Stirrup - 1/2" PVC pipe flattened and bent to shape. Has a small connector made from 3/4" PVC pipe and hot glue.
- Prods - Tapered 3/4" PVC pipe with a 1" pipe coupling, which is bound to the bow with about 14 wraps of polypropylene twine.
- Bowstring - Countertwist bowstring woven from polypropylene twine with some beeswax.
- Body - Two guides made from 1/2" pipe glued onto 1" pipe for support. The trigger section was ground out afterwards and a 3" ring of pipe was shaped to brace the back of the body.
- Nut - 6 layers of plexiglass hotglued together and carved to shape.
- Trigger - 4 layers of flattened 1/2" PVC pipe glued and ground to shape. Also, three rubberbands attached to the front of the body via a small 1/2" PVC clip reset the trigger.
I've never experimented with PVC and plastics before, so I thought this was a huge success. I love the feel of the trigger being solid plastic, as opposed to bulky wooden ones and cheap cardboard ones I have made in the past (cardboard = models). Here's a close up of the trigger piece in the making:
I'll hopefully be posting a video by tomorrow. Somehow random thunderstorms came out and now it's too wet and dark to film. Be sure to check back for it's power and such!
If I happen to make another synthetic crossbow in the future, it will definitely have a stock and handle and possibly a recurve on it. That should be fun to experiment with.
Any questions? I'll be glad to answer them.
Also, I notice it looks messy with Sharpie and printing all over it. I might just leave it that way.
-CCK
". Still though, just for kicks sat down and drew up a few sketches of possible ways of mounting my trigger into a PVC pipe. Gotta say...we think alike, because what you built - I, have on paper. Only difference is a trigger box instead of a roll nut. 
Your profile
Social
Private messages