How-to make your own catapult from recycling in 4 easy steps.

You can buy your own catapult at your local Walmart for around $10.00 USD but it is more fun to build it yourself. I built mine for free since all the components I used are from recycling materials...

Step 1: What you will need

For the slingshot, try to get a V shape branch from a tree like depicted on the picture. You'll also need to large and robust rubber bands and four smaller ones. Finally I use a 1ft vinyl baseboard piece for the sling but you can use what you have such as an old leather strip from a shoe, belt etc.

Comments

[16kuokhc1]

Where do we get the wood in HK

[bwells2]

How far does the slingshot go?

[35Timmy]

okay you can make one cheapper than $10 in americain or canadian take for example this slingshot
for example the tee connector used in plumbling costs within $2.5 or less and the elastic $2.5 not including tax,tools and ammo unless you get into fastenners than it would cost another $2.5
here i will even throw in a video

http://youtu.be/8XR9xdANbsk
plus the link http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-make-a-resist-flat-slingshot/
 

[dkiss]

To all the people saying it's a SLING SHOT, IT'S NOT!!!!

A sling shot is a thing you use to SLING stuff. It's a piece of leather held on 4 corners/2 sides by string/sinew and used to SLING rocks by spinning it around like a lasso and releasing the rock, thus it is called a SLING SHOT. This is a CATAPULT, because it CATAPULTs things, it doen't SLING them! Get it!?

I have been trying to find a video on sling-shots but I can't find it past all the people who can't understand this simple concept.

[35Timmy]

yeah you need science first of all a elastic stores energy just like the leather that twists the energy both of them store energy then release it like a spring same with the elastic  
from torque,torsion,compression and elasticity
for more info go to these links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasticity_(physics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_(device)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_(physics)http://www.howstuffworks.com/force-info.htm http://www.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/physics-terms/torsion-info.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centripetal_force please give equal credit to the links and follow there disclaimers,terms of use and policys,laws and regulations of your area

[animeman819]

Actually, It is a slingshot. What you're referring to is a sling. A slingshot uses vulcanized rubber to propel an object. Depending on where you are from, it is called a slingshot or a catapult. If you want to find some videos, try searching for slings, not slingshots.

[35Timmy]

yeah but you can still use nonnatural rubber like this one http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-make-a-resist-flat-slingshot/
or you can even use a elastic cloth like the kind on clothes

[doctor strange]

i have never seen anything as interesting and as constructive as a catapult.

[christpher]

wow
 

[botboybart]

i had one of those jaru toy sling shots when i was a kid , my mom burnt it because my sister shot her self in the face with it

[ttguy]

cool

[nutsandbolts_64]

lol, I thought it was a catapult catapult. It was actually a slingshot. I understand that other cultures use the words "catapult" and "slingshot" interchangeably (correct me if I'm wrong). Just put something up there that it's a slingshot so that people won't get confused between "slingshot" and "catapult".

Otherwise, better than my last attempt!

[alex4646]

*cough* slingshot *cough*

otherwise very nice.

[weaponscollector94]

(removed by author or community request)

[mikaelthemycologist]

in the UK and similar cultures catapult is their word for slingshot.

[weaponscollector94]

oh ok then! well, technically a slingshot is a type of catapult although not a pure bred catapult it still is

[MadBricoleur]

hate to get you wrong there, but mikaelthemycologist (did i spell that right? :D) is right... haha funny i used to think that "planes" were small private cessnas and sailplanes, and "airplanes" were the big airliners. I corrected my teacher that way one time in first grade. Now i look back... :P epic fail :D

[threeme2189]

this is how a real slingshot looks like its about 10.5 inches long, made it myself.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/Threeme2189/DSC00443.jpg

[15zhangfra]

how do u make those rubber band knots???

[threeme2189]

you start the chain from the leather strap. stick one (or 2 or 3, for a thicker chain) through the hole on the strap, "fold it in half, and stick another one (2,3...) through the loops that the two folded ends make etc. when the chain is long enough attach it to the stick with another rubber band.

[15zhangfra]

thanks, gonna try that if i evver get thicker nads then the small thin ones. i think they're size 16

[Walker]

Here's a photo of a "real" slingshot (UK:"Catapult"). This bad boy is capable of hurling a waterballoon a quarter of a US mile and can be found on the Internet. Or you can make your own using surgical rubber tubing and a nylon pouch. Mine takes three people to operate: two strong young men to hold the ends and me to pull back the pouch and launch paint balloons.

[Spartan 117 (master chief)]

Or just buy Backyard Ballistics by William Gurstelle and make one yourself

[Pivnic]

"a quarter of a US mile" would that be nautical miles or landlover miles?

[dominic.tarr]

well it couldn't possibly be nautical miles, because the US does not own the sea does it? so how could a nautical mile be US?

[lllalllo]

PWN'd

[loler]

very awesome instructable!! I'm making one right now! lolz... thanks for the instructable!! =}

[Jdogg095]

can someone make a small easy to make trebuchet. i cant find a decent one

[smileys]

I had one I made with a counterweight and all.... but I took it a part already -.-

[smileys]

this is not the one I made but if this were made out of card stock it might work

http://members.home.nl/papermodels/

[slingman98]

thank you this really helps with school work and for fun thanks whoever you are :)

[bob the builder #2]

dude that's a slingshot, not a catapult.

[Pyroman101]

actually they are called catapults.they have a lot of names

[Anton1995]

Check out my slingshot HERE

[threeme2189]

that slingshot is for babies. the instructions are good but the slingshot just isn't robust enough. the stick needs to be much thicker and the rubber bands (about 20 of them) need to be attacked to a strong piece of leather in a pretty complex way that i have no time to describe. how far can that thing launch a marble? 20-30 feet?

[tomtrollkiller]

Are you being mean or kind?

[popomaster]

i made my own using 6 rubber bands and it shoots a nice 200 feet. i shot a very round rock across a field in my neighborhood. but i want that rock back :( it was really round so it was really accurate. :(

[TheMadScientist]

maybe you should look into the word "ballista" if you want something your talking about... the ruber bands are used to gain rotational torque, rather than leniar pull, and thus, far, far more force is gained in the long run... plus ballista bows are more fun...

[dominic.tarr]

i'm not sure what method you are thinking about but i would recomend using a sheet bend. it's basicially as bowline, except instead of forming a loop by tieing one rope back onto itself you tie two different ropes together

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_bend

[tomtrollkiller]

i tried to bind the bands together but it bacame loose. I made 1 similer and probabaly stronger mine goes 84 feet. (i measured)