This is my made, rubber band bolt:

Material:
- Satay lidi
- Glue - the white water type is good enough, dont use the clear type
- 80gm A4 paper

1) Cut the satay stick into appropriate length
2) spread a layer of glue on a long piece of paper and roll it at the front part, use it to make a hook or something for you to tap it on a rubber band.
3) glue a piece of paper fin - a triangle shape paper at the rear part of the arrow as stablizer, without it your dart wont make it far.
4) let it dry naturally

Then rest a rubber band between your thumb and finger, tap a dart at the middle, draw the arrow and shoot!

You can hit an 1/2 A4 size target at 5 meters easily, if you shoot with the right angle, you can even pierce a cola tin, therefore, read below.

Warning: Not for kids below 12 or anyone who like to shoot chicken

A careless shot will cause you to shoot your mum or your own hand, becareful.

This post has been edited by rexis: Dec 21 2007, 09:47 AM

Please dont shoot people for fun, trust me, its no fun.



Explanation:
- The "<-" part is done by rolling a piece of glue paper* on two stick.
- The small stick give the part a shape and the paper hold the structure firm.
- it also act as a weight to add momentum to your projectile.

How to use,
- Remember how we shoot the v-shaped paper bullet with rubber band? Thats the way.

Note,
- white water glue + paper roll over two object, after they are dried, it will form a very strong bond, i would say its strong enough to make furniture, they are not water proof thou.
- let the glue dry naturally, dont use hair drier or anything else, to make sure its dried evenly.
- *glue paper means a paper full of glue, dont use sticky tapes aka cellotapes.

Basically from here you can play around with
- adjust the counter weight = lighter: longer range faster, heavier: hit harder shorter range
- fin, which shape is the most aerodynamic? You can try use a feather to make fin, range will be much bigger.
- tip, perhaps you missed your target too much and decided to make one with replacable tip?
- overall length, longer means heavier means more momentun, and somehow can drift in air longer, but you need a stronger rubberband too.
- finally, the launcher, aka rubber band, the best way to hold it, which type? Long or short?

I hope you people dont feel confused now, hopefully I will take some snapshot with my IXUS soon, perhaps next week. FYI, they are not theories, I have made them physically.

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Added on December 21, 2007, 10:39 amSuddently feel like reviving this post.

Accuracy:
- quite accurate within 5m, able to hit an object of 10cmx10cm with some aiming.
- >5m, will be affected by gravity, but it generally heads straight if your fin is perfectly balanced.
- >10m, aerodynamic does matters now, paper fin might not be able to do the job well, try feather, never tried feather on a RBolt thou.

Outdoor operation
- due to the low weight of the RBolt, it will be greatly affectly by wind.

During my previous testing, I am able to strike my own bolt with another bolt, resulting two damaged fins :/. (means robbin hood style of spliting an arrow on target into two with another arrow)

Using any carton box, I am able to aim whichever alphabets of the logo printed on it, not 100% accurate, but possible.

To proof that this is not my personal imagination, I will post some screen shot, soon...

This post has been edited by rexis: Dec 21 2007, 10:39 AM