Rubber band gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rubber band gun, also known as a RBG, is a toy gun that can fire any quantity between 1 and 150+ rubber bands (or "elastic bands").
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[edit] Types of rubber band gun
[edit] Clothes peg (clothespin) pistol
This is a pistol-sized rubber band gun whose simple firing mechanism consists solely of a clothes peg. It may have more than one clothes peg, allowing more than one rubber band to be fired. It is also possible to spring-load the clothes pegs, such that extra bands can be trapped beneath the pegs and subsequently fired.
It is very easy to make the clothes peg RBG, and it is possible to make one that can individually fire two rubber bands with just one clothes peg.
Loading: The rubber band is first gripped by the clothes peg, which is attached to the rear end of the barrel or on the rear of the grip, and stretched forward along the barrel. The band is then hooked around the end of the barrel (usually a wooden dowel), and is ready to fire.
Firing: Once pointed at a suitable target, the pistol is fired by simply opening the clothes peg. This gun will fall apart easily
[edit] Advanced Triggers
Nail and Clothespin: It is easy to make a slightly better trigger than the mechanism above:
- Take a nail about an 16th of an inch thick.
- Saw off the head (not the point), and round it off.
- Measure the length of the gun body to where you want the end of the clothespin to be attached. This will be how much the rubber band will be stretched.
- Make a mark there and, sharp end first, hammer the nail in straight, such that it protrudes from the body at right-angles. Leave 3/4" (18 mm) of nail sticking out.
- Drill a hole vertically through the end of the clothespin, through both wooden parts of the clothespin, wide enough so the nail has a little room to spare. There should be enough room so that the clothespin can open and close without touching the nail, and no more room than that.
- Glue the clothespin to the gun body with the nail coming through the hole in the end.
To load:
- Hook band around muzzle end of barrel.
- Stretch band back and hook it over the top of the protruding nail.
To fire, open the clothespin to slide the rubber band up and off the nail.
Hairpin Trigger: This trigger is more realistic, but more complicated and difficult to make. It consists of a realistic trigger, hinged at the front, which pushes up a piece of wood on top of the gun when pulled. This strip of wood then pushes the rubber band off the nail in the back, in a similar way to the advanced clothespin trigger detailed above. The hairpin acts as a spring to recock the strip of wood. Guns have been made that can fire 7-inch rubber bands 40' (12 m) with 30 ft (9 m) accuracy. Bands can be bought from office supply shops.
[edit] Repeater pistol
A compact weapon, the repeater (or revolver) RBG is capable of firing 10 or more rubber bands, semi-automatically. It is possibly the most realistic-looking of all the variants of rubber band gun.
The repeater RBG is usually made of wood, and has a plastic firing mechanism, consisting of a toothed wheel onto which the bands are loaded, and a sprung trigger that advances the wheel, under the power of the bands hooked onto it, by one notch every time it is from small Luger style pistols, through rifle-shaped designs, to Tommy guns.
Loading (example): There are four possible exposed teeth on the wheel onto which bands can be loaded. A band is hooked around the front of the barrel, and then stretched back to the first tooth. More bands are taken, and hooked on progressively forward teeth until all 4 possible exposed teeth have a band hooked onto them. It gets harder each time to turn back the wheel. On gun models with ten to twelve slots, loading can get extremely hard. By the tenth time, it gets relatively hard to cock back the wheel. Take in mind that the 007 gun sold at www.rubberbandguns.com should only be loaded once. Otherwise, it will most likely malfunction and fail to fire properly. The 007 is by far the hardest repeater pistol to load.
Then, the wheel is turned back 4 notches by hand and the process of hooking on bands is repeated. Once all teeth on the wheel are loaded, the gun is ready to fire.
Firing: The repeater pistol is fired by repeatedly pulling and releasing the trigger. One band is released every time the trigger is pulled and released. When the rubber band gun malfuntions, the band may be caught and not fire at all.
[edit] Gatling gun
The rubber-band Gatling gun is a fearsome weapon, and is very rare. It can be bought as a complete weapon or as a kit with instructions, or even just as a set of plans for DIY building. It is very expensive if bought complete.
Constructed almost wholly of wood, the Gatling gun usually has between 8 and 12 barrels, each of which can take up to twelve rubber bands on a similar mechanism to the repeater pistol. This means a twelve-barrel Gatling gun using twelve-shot repeater mechanisms can fire 144 rubber bands automatically.
Loading: The repeater pistol loading method is followed for each of the Gatling gun's barrels.
Firing: The machine-gun RBG is usually fired by manually rotating a crank handle.
[edit] K'NEX Gun
Easy-to-use and reliable rubber band guns can be built out of K'NEX. These weapons can range from handheld pistols to automatics to sniper rifle models. Some K'NEX guns work off the lock-wheel trigger mechanism seen in the repeater, but more advanced types have hinge triggers that are more reliable, allow for more bands on a barrel, and have a more genuine trigger feel.
K'NEX guns, like all rubber band guns, are most effective within ten feet but have maximum ranges of thirty feet or more.
