hey guys welcome back thanks for joining
us today on the king of random the
crossbow is a weapon and tool that dates
back thousands of years and has been
used for hunting and warfare
it has great range a lot of power and
often takes less training to learn to
use wealth and other types of bows the
purpose of today’s video is to learn how
we can build our own crossbow using a
2×4 some PVC and some paracord we also
have a couple of wooden dowels and a
small piece of 3/4 inch plywood in this
video we’ll be using the to life for PVC
and paracord to build the body and bow
of our crossbow in our next video we’ll
cover how to build the trigger mechanism
and the arrows let’s get started as a
first step let’s measure 2 feet from our
2×4 and cut it off with the chops up
well I’ve got my chops I’ll I’m also
gonna cut off two pieces of my 3/4 inch
schedule 40 PVC one piece will be 30
inches long and one piece will be about
1 foot long with these pieces cut there
are some more details that I need to add
to the body of our crossbow so it’s not
just a block of 2×4 I’m going to draw
those out with a sharpie and then cut
them out with a bandsaw
[Music]
this is going to be the front of the
crossbow and this will be the back this
notch up the front is where our bow will
sit resting against the body of the
crossbow this piece that I’m removing is
to create a handhold right here where it
can hold on to the front of the crossbow
this larger piece is being removed for
two purposes first it makes the crossbow
a lot lighter second we’ll have our
trigger mechanism on this part of the
crossbow
[Music]
there we go we’ve got the basic shape of
the body of the crossbow now I’m going
to use the belt sander really quick and
take down a lot of the sharp edges and
plane out the top of it so it’s a little
bit flatter and smoother
[Music]
the body of the crossbow is cut out it’s
sanded it’s smooth and comfortable to
hold now let’s move on to making the
bows clearly to start out with our PVC
pipe is round and we want it flat so
what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take
our heat gun we’re gonna heat up the
pipe and then we’re gonna smash it flat
using our vise now the clamps of the
vise are not as tall as the PVC pipe and
it has this knurled texture which helps
you get a lot better grip but we don’t
want that texture smashing into our PVC
so what I’ve done is I’ve thrown
together a couple of blocks using two by
four and just glued a couple of scraps
of wood onto the top these fit nicely in
the vise and I can fit the PVC pipe
between them and smash it there that
gives me a much larger surface area and
it’s a lot smoother than the gripping
services of the vise now with our heat
gun we want to heat up the PVC pipe four
or five inches of length at once we want
to make sure we keep the heat gun moving
and the pipe rotating so that we don’t
burn it in any one spot
[Applause]
with your PVC heated up we want to
sandwich it between the two blocks I’m
just going to smash this down until I
can’t really smash it any farther
now the PVC is somewhat elastic so if we
were to unclamp it right now we can see
that it will start springing back to its
shape and that’s not what we want we
want it to stay flatten the whole time
so what we need to do is leave it
clamped as it cools down if it cools
down while it’s in the clamps it will
hold its flattened shape while this
portion is cooling down we’re going to
warm up the next four or five inches as
you heat up the next length of the PVC
be sure you support it at the back so
that it doesn’t sag down when the PVC is
warm it could even tear if you let it
sag too much all right
got some good squishiness flexibility
loosen our clamps I’m just gonna kind of
push it through you can see it’s kind of
getting squished on its way through and
I’m not going to push it all the way
through so that the already flattened
portion is completely out of the clamp I
want to sort of use that to make sure I
don’t end up twisting as I go if I use
this as a guide it will all stay flat in
the same plane
[Music]
it starts taking longer the farther down
you go because the wood blocks
themselves get pretty hot and PVC really
needs to cool down while it’s sandwiched
in between them which is harder for it
to do when the wood itself is not cool
you can see here that I got a little bit
of a bend in the bow and I want to take
that out because I want it to be a
little straighter so I’m gonna try
reheating this portion just bending this
end part down a little bit we’ll see how
this goes
[Music]
it is letting it Bend now although it’s
also puffing back up kind of taking on
more of its tube shape again which is
not really what I wanted I’m gonna help
it stay flat I’m just gonna sandwich it
between a couple boards here it’s a
waiting game now there we go we’ve got
the first piece of flattened PVC which
will turn into the main bow on our
crossbow now let’s do the same thing to
our one foot piece while our smaller bow
is cooling down in the clamp we’re gonna
work on shaping the main bow for our
crossbow the first step is we’re going
to try and heat up this piece of
flattened PVC about 2/3 of the whole bow
here in the middle we’ll leave the ends
cool the way they are for now similar to
when we tried to adjust the curve in the
bow before it’s likely that some parts
of the PVC will start to split apart and
lose the flattened shape that we’ve
given it as we add the curve hopefully
the pressure of bending it will flatten
it back out so you know we’re doing I’m
gonna try and add just a gentle curve
into the whole bow don’t want it to be
too extreme we don’t need any sharp
angles or anything and I’ll give this a
few minutes to cool off and hold its
shape now we have a nice curve in the
PVC which is going to become our primary
bow but to give it a little more
strength we’re going to try and add a
little bit of recurve on either end this
will make it so as the bow is pulled
down it not only has to bend on one side
but it has to straighten out the edges
this will give us a lot more power
that feels fairly flexible you can see
it started to sort of balloon out I
think as I wrap it around the fire
extinguisher it will just smoosh it back
down pretty well down enough to hold its
shape do the same thing on the other
side
[Applause]
all right there we have it there’s our
primary bow it’s a good curve in the
main body of it and then some recurve on
the ends this second piece of PVC is
actually going to be a second bow that
goes on our cross foot this piece of PVC
with its curved and recurved ends will
give us a fair amount of force but it is
still PVC and traditional crossbows
would use either a laminated wooden bow
or a metal boat to give it extra
strength since PVC isn’t as strong as
either of those there’s going to be a
secondary bow on top of the first one
curving in the opposite direction a
second string will connect from one end
of the large bow over the smaller bow
and then back down to the other side so
the same way we did with our large bow
we’re now going to heat this up and add
a gentle curve to it
[Music]
all right add a slight curve into this
some of you may recognize our original
backyard foundry I’m just gonna use this
as a curved surface to wrap this bow
around here we go we’ve now got our two
separate bows and we need to attach
these to the top of our crossbow in
order to find out the exact center of
the bow I’m gonna put it on this stick
and try and get it to point where it’s
perfectly balanced it’ll mark that point
[Music]
let’s take our larger bow and line it up
on our two-by-four body and we’re gonna
want to pre-drill a couple of holes that
go through the bow and into the wooden
body the large bow will go right here
where we’ve just drilled it out the
small bow will face the other way so
they curve in opposite directions with
these two bows set up the way that we
want them we’re going to drill through
the holes that we already put in our
larger bow and down through the smaller
bow to make sure the holes all line up
exactly where we want them
[Music]
with our screws driven just slightly
through the two bows we can now align
the two screws with our pre-drilled
holes on the body of the crossbow those
fit pretty well let’s temporarily remove
the screws in the bows and then make our
modifications before we reattach them on
the larger bow we need to add notches to
allow for the connection of our
bowstring for decorative purposes I’m
also going to cut off the very edges of
the bow at an angle
[Music]
there we have it that should work great
our smaller boat doesn’t need to be cut
in the same way to hold the drawstring
but we are going to sand some grooves
into both sides so that as a drawstring
passes over it it will stay centered the
way it’s supposed to
with the modifications complete on both
bows let’s reattach it onto the body of
the crossbow
the bows are complete they’re added to
the body let’s try adding some bowstring
here I’ve got some paracord I’m going to
tie a loop in one end measure out the
correct length and then tie a loop in
the other end you need to be sure that
the loop and your knot is large enough
that it can fit over the knots you’ve
cut into your bow now we also want to
make sure that when our bow is strung
there’s already a little bit of tension
on the bow so I’m going to pull slightly
on the bowstring if you can see that the
bow starts to give a little bit that’s
the length we want the paracord to be
where we add the other loop cut myself
off plenty of extra here if you keep
your knot nice and loose you can easily
adjust it as you measure that looks like
pretty good spot make sure that I’ve got
enough loop fit around the notches there
we go it’s under a little bit of tension
we can see it if I draw it back it
Springs forward so I think that is a
good length of bowstring right there now
I’m just gonna cut off the excess here
and then I’ll fuse the end of the
paracord using a lighter now like I said
this has some spring to it but not as
much as we want so we’re going to add
another string that goes from this end
of the bow up on top of the second bow
and then connects again to the notch on
the other side take our paracord make
sure our end is sealed off start with
another bowline knot slip that over the
notch on one side and you measure going
across the top down to the other side
now I haven’t tied it off yet but if I
just wrap it around a couple times you
can already see that now when I pull on
it this cord going along the top is
forcing the second bow to flatten out
which adds a lot more tension into our
crossbow now we want to tie another loop
in the end of this piece of paracord so
that it’s quite snug as it wraps around
this knot to make it a little bit easier
to attach the second string you can put
it on the notch
without it being over the bow and then
stretch it over one side at a time there
you have it that’s how you can build
your very own crossbow using a
two-by-four for the body some PVC piping
for the bow and some paracord for the
strings like I said in our next video
we’ll go over how to build the trigger
mechanisms and the arrows that
used thanks for joining us for this
video and we look forward to teaching
you how to finish your crossbow in the
next one talk to you then that is toasty
holding on to that little part in
between the blocks I’m sure it’s still
very one
us today on the king of random the
crossbow is a weapon and tool that dates
back thousands of years and has been
used for hunting and warfare
it has great range a lot of power and
often takes less training to learn to
use wealth and other types of bows the
purpose of today’s video is to learn how
we can build our own crossbow using a
2×4 some PVC and some paracord we also
have a couple of wooden dowels and a
small piece of 3/4 inch plywood in this
video we’ll be using the to life for PVC
and paracord to build the body and bow
of our crossbow in our next video we’ll
cover how to build the trigger mechanism
and the arrows let’s get started as a
first step let’s measure 2 feet from our
2×4 and cut it off with the chops up
well I’ve got my chops I’ll I’m also
gonna cut off two pieces of my 3/4 inch
schedule 40 PVC one piece will be 30
inches long and one piece will be about
1 foot long with these pieces cut there
are some more details that I need to add
to the body of our crossbow so it’s not
just a block of 2×4 I’m going to draw
those out with a sharpie and then cut
them out with a bandsaw
[Music]
this is going to be the front of the
crossbow and this will be the back this
notch up the front is where our bow will
sit resting against the body of the
crossbow this piece that I’m removing is
to create a handhold right here where it
can hold on to the front of the crossbow
this larger piece is being removed for
two purposes first it makes the crossbow
a lot lighter second we’ll have our
trigger mechanism on this part of the
crossbow
[Music]
there we go we’ve got the basic shape of
the body of the crossbow now I’m going
to use the belt sander really quick and
take down a lot of the sharp edges and
plane out the top of it so it’s a little
bit flatter and smoother
[Music]
the body of the crossbow is cut out it’s
sanded it’s smooth and comfortable to
hold now let’s move on to making the
bows clearly to start out with our PVC
pipe is round and we want it flat so
what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take
our heat gun we’re gonna heat up the
pipe and then we’re gonna smash it flat
using our vise now the clamps of the
vise are not as tall as the PVC pipe and
it has this knurled texture which helps
you get a lot better grip but we don’t
want that texture smashing into our PVC
so what I’ve done is I’ve thrown
together a couple of blocks using two by
four and just glued a couple of scraps
of wood onto the top these fit nicely in
the vise and I can fit the PVC pipe
between them and smash it there that
gives me a much larger surface area and
it’s a lot smoother than the gripping
services of the vise now with our heat
gun we want to heat up the PVC pipe four
or five inches of length at once we want
to make sure we keep the heat gun moving
and the pipe rotating so that we don’t
burn it in any one spot
[Applause]
with your PVC heated up we want to
sandwich it between the two blocks I’m
just going to smash this down until I
can’t really smash it any farther
now the PVC is somewhat elastic so if we
were to unclamp it right now we can see
that it will start springing back to its
shape and that’s not what we want we
want it to stay flatten the whole time
so what we need to do is leave it
clamped as it cools down if it cools
down while it’s in the clamps it will
hold its flattened shape while this
portion is cooling down we’re going to
warm up the next four or five inches as
you heat up the next length of the PVC
be sure you support it at the back so
that it doesn’t sag down when the PVC is
warm it could even tear if you let it
sag too much all right
got some good squishiness flexibility
loosen our clamps I’m just gonna kind of
push it through you can see it’s kind of
getting squished on its way through and
I’m not going to push it all the way
through so that the already flattened
portion is completely out of the clamp I
want to sort of use that to make sure I
don’t end up twisting as I go if I use
this as a guide it will all stay flat in
the same plane
[Music]
it starts taking longer the farther down
you go because the wood blocks
themselves get pretty hot and PVC really
needs to cool down while it’s sandwiched
in between them which is harder for it
to do when the wood itself is not cool
you can see here that I got a little bit
of a bend in the bow and I want to take
that out because I want it to be a
little straighter so I’m gonna try
reheating this portion just bending this
end part down a little bit we’ll see how
this goes
[Music]
it is letting it Bend now although it’s
also puffing back up kind of taking on
more of its tube shape again which is
not really what I wanted I’m gonna help
it stay flat I’m just gonna sandwich it
between a couple boards here it’s a
waiting game now there we go we’ve got
the first piece of flattened PVC which
will turn into the main bow on our
crossbow now let’s do the same thing to
our one foot piece while our smaller bow
is cooling down in the clamp we’re gonna
work on shaping the main bow for our
crossbow the first step is we’re going
to try and heat up this piece of
flattened PVC about 2/3 of the whole bow
here in the middle we’ll leave the ends
cool the way they are for now similar to
when we tried to adjust the curve in the
bow before it’s likely that some parts
of the PVC will start to split apart and
lose the flattened shape that we’ve
given it as we add the curve hopefully
the pressure of bending it will flatten
it back out so you know we’re doing I’m
gonna try and add just a gentle curve
into the whole bow don’t want it to be
too extreme we don’t need any sharp
angles or anything and I’ll give this a
few minutes to cool off and hold its
shape now we have a nice curve in the
PVC which is going to become our primary
bow but to give it a little more
strength we’re going to try and add a
little bit of recurve on either end this
will make it so as the bow is pulled
down it not only has to bend on one side
but it has to straighten out the edges
this will give us a lot more power
that feels fairly flexible you can see
it started to sort of balloon out I
think as I wrap it around the fire
extinguisher it will just smoosh it back
down pretty well down enough to hold its
shape do the same thing on the other
side
[Applause]
all right there we have it there’s our
primary bow it’s a good curve in the
main body of it and then some recurve on
the ends this second piece of PVC is
actually going to be a second bow that
goes on our cross foot this piece of PVC
with its curved and recurved ends will
give us a fair amount of force but it is
still PVC and traditional crossbows
would use either a laminated wooden bow
or a metal boat to give it extra
strength since PVC isn’t as strong as
either of those there’s going to be a
secondary bow on top of the first one
curving in the opposite direction a
second string will connect from one end
of the large bow over the smaller bow
and then back down to the other side so
the same way we did with our large bow
we’re now going to heat this up and add
a gentle curve to it
[Music]
all right add a slight curve into this
some of you may recognize our original
backyard foundry I’m just gonna use this
as a curved surface to wrap this bow
around here we go we’ve now got our two
separate bows and we need to attach
these to the top of our crossbow in
order to find out the exact center of
the bow I’m gonna put it on this stick
and try and get it to point where it’s
perfectly balanced it’ll mark that point
[Music]
let’s take our larger bow and line it up
on our two-by-four body and we’re gonna
want to pre-drill a couple of holes that
go through the bow and into the wooden
body the large bow will go right here
where we’ve just drilled it out the
small bow will face the other way so
they curve in opposite directions with
these two bows set up the way that we
want them we’re going to drill through
the holes that we already put in our
larger bow and down through the smaller
bow to make sure the holes all line up
exactly where we want them
[Music]
with our screws driven just slightly
through the two bows we can now align
the two screws with our pre-drilled
holes on the body of the crossbow those
fit pretty well let’s temporarily remove
the screws in the bows and then make our
modifications before we reattach them on
the larger bow we need to add notches to
allow for the connection of our
bowstring for decorative purposes I’m
also going to cut off the very edges of
the bow at an angle
[Music]
there we have it that should work great
our smaller boat doesn’t need to be cut
in the same way to hold the drawstring
but we are going to sand some grooves
into both sides so that as a drawstring
passes over it it will stay centered the
way it’s supposed to
with the modifications complete on both
bows let’s reattach it onto the body of
the crossbow
the bows are complete they’re added to
the body let’s try adding some bowstring
here I’ve got some paracord I’m going to
tie a loop in one end measure out the
correct length and then tie a loop in
the other end you need to be sure that
the loop and your knot is large enough
that it can fit over the knots you’ve
cut into your bow now we also want to
make sure that when our bow is strung
there’s already a little bit of tension
on the bow so I’m going to pull slightly
on the bowstring if you can see that the
bow starts to give a little bit that’s
the length we want the paracord to be
where we add the other loop cut myself
off plenty of extra here if you keep
your knot nice and loose you can easily
adjust it as you measure that looks like
pretty good spot make sure that I’ve got
enough loop fit around the notches there
we go it’s under a little bit of tension
we can see it if I draw it back it
Springs forward so I think that is a
good length of bowstring right there now
I’m just gonna cut off the excess here
and then I’ll fuse the end of the
paracord using a lighter now like I said
this has some spring to it but not as
much as we want so we’re going to add
another string that goes from this end
of the bow up on top of the second bow
and then connects again to the notch on
the other side take our paracord make
sure our end is sealed off start with
another bowline knot slip that over the
notch on one side and you measure going
across the top down to the other side
now I haven’t tied it off yet but if I
just wrap it around a couple times you
can already see that now when I pull on
it this cord going along the top is
forcing the second bow to flatten out
which adds a lot more tension into our
crossbow now we want to tie another loop
in the end of this piece of paracord so
that it’s quite snug as it wraps around
this knot to make it a little bit easier
to attach the second string you can put
it on the notch
without it being over the bow and then
stretch it over one side at a time there
you have it that’s how you can build
your very own crossbow using a
two-by-four for the body some PVC piping
for the bow and some paracord for the
strings like I said in our next video
we’ll go over how to build the trigger
mechanisms and the arrows that
used thanks for joining us for this
video and we look forward to teaching
you how to finish your crossbow in the
next one talk to you then that is toasty
holding on to that little part in
between the blocks I’m sure it’s still
very one
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