Instructions to Build a Rubber Band Gun

Introduction

This rubber band gun is made out of a couple of pieces of wood and fires a single rubber band. I used to have a commercial rubber band gun that you could load with four or more rubber bands and shoot them off semi-automatic style. That's pretty groovy. Mine melted and warped after I left it on the back seat of my car on a hot day. The rubber-band gun that I describe here is more like a muzzle-loading flint lock. But it works and it is fun.

What You Will Need

A piece of 18 mm thick wood. It is alright to use particle board but the trigger has to be solid wood.
A drawing pin.
A thick rubber band that will stretch to 200 mm.
A small rubber to shoot with and that will also stretch to 200 mm.

You will need the following tools:

A coping saw (you can get away with a hacksaw).
A flat file.

How To Build It

Cut out a gun shape from the wood as shown in the diagram above. The length is not critical but the 6mm step at the back is fairly important. Otherwise the shape of the gun does not matter - do whatever is comfortable.
Cut out a 5 mm thick strip of solid wood. This is the trigger.
With the file, smooth all corners of the gun except for the corner marked "A" (this must remain a sharp edge).
Push a drawing pin through the trigger. It should poke through the trigger. The point of the drawing pin must fit under the edge at the back of the gun when the top of the trigger is flush with the top of the gun. See the diagram.
Place the trigger against the back of the gun and hold it in place with the thick rubber band as shown in the diagram.

The rubber band gun is finished. To load the gun take one of the small rubber bands, squeeze the trigger and push a small loop of the rubber band into the opening between the trigger and the gun. Release the trigger, then stretch the rubber band over the nose of the gun. Then Aim and Fire!

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Last modified: Thu May 14 08:56:15 1998