How do you make a rubber band gun?

Answer 1

There are various ways to make a rubber band gun. They range from simple one-shots to the complicated automatic, 1000 rpm guns seen on some internet videos.

The simplest rubber band gun needs no more than ammunition and your other hand: simply make the gun of your fingers, stretch the band from the fingertips around your thumb and back to your pinky. To fire, simply flex it and send the band flying.

Other pretty simple designs need only a piece of wood, and sometimes a catch for the band. You can hold a piece of wood in one hand, stretch the band along it and use your thumb to hold it in place until you want to shoot it. Others involve something like a small clip or a clothespeg, secured to the wood involved; all you need to do is open the peg to release the band being held, and thus fire it.

Semiautomatic rubber band guns are a little more involved, with several moving parts. Making one is a bit of a challenge, but well worth the effort. Some can figure out the parts and how they should shape up by just thinking for a while, others will need to observe a premade one or perhaps dismantle and copy it. Basically, you need a toothed wheel to hold the bands, and a trigger assembly (usually of one piece) that can release one tooth per pull, yet prevent the next ones going at the same time. For some inspiration, have a look at how pendulum clocks work, specifically the escapement mechanism.

The bigger ones, often powered by motors or cranks and shooting sometimes hundreds per minute, are just a lot of these semiautos attached to the same weapon, and controlled by a catch to pull the trigger when it should. For these, you realy need experience at developing the smaller versions, as well as some know-how in the fields of either simple electronics or of simple mechanics - both is pretty good.

How big you make any of these depends only on the size of the bands being fired; if you can choose that size, then it depends only on how big you want to make it.

Answer 2

This is how you make a rubber band shooter

1. get a branch about 10 inches

2. split the top in half's in a V shape

3. now put another stick like a chop stick in the middle of the V so it holds it

4. after that bend down the top edges of the V make sure you don't break it off

5. put a rubber band on the bent down edges of the branch

6. pull it back so your finger is behind the bent branch

7. now you can shoot things with your rubber band shooter