don’t even know if it’s me or the other
cups it’s me
hey guys I’m Nate welcome back to the
workshop not too long ago we showed you
how to build a full-size functioning
crossbow well today we are going to
scale that way down and make a desktop
crossbow using popsicle sticks a
clothespin and a ballpoint pen in
addition to the popsicle sticks
clothespin and pen we’ll also have some
strong tape and two rubber bands one
regular rubber band and one wide rubber
band the first step is going to be to
take our pen apart into its individual
pieces with some pens the back will pop
off easily some you’ll need a small tool
like I’m using to fit in between the cap
and the body of the pen and sometimes
it’s going to be so stick in there you
might have to use a drill to get it out
for this build we won’t be using the
front or back cap of the pen so you can
discard those now we want to take the
body of the pen and divide it into three
equal pieces a hacksaw and a vise might
be overkill but it is going to make it
pretty easy and don’t worry if your
divisions aren’t perfectly in thirds it
won’t make a difference let’s just clean
up the sawed-off ends of our pens so
they’re nice and smooth again now that
we have our three sections of pen let’s
grab two of our popsicle sticks and
start attaching them together we want to
take two ends of the pen and sandwich
them between the two popsicle sticks
using tape now the tape I’m using is
super sticky and will stick to my gloves
I’m just going to use a fairly thin
piece of this tape because while I do
want it to wrap all the way around I
don’t want it to cover the entire length
of the popsicle sticks let’s see if we
can get this to attach I think this is
the trickiest part of the build is
getting these pieces of pen to sandwich
just right in between the two sticks
note that as I’m closing it I’m leaving
a slight gap between the end of the
popsicle sticks and the edge of the pen
barrel
[Music]
there we go we’ve got one side pretty
well sandwiched in between there and you
can see that I’ve only put tape on one
edge I’m not covering up the entire
barrel of the pen that’s because we’re
going to be fitting something else in
between these popsicle sticks later and
they need to have some flex to them if
we put tape all the way across they
won’t be able to spread out now this
right here is going to be the cross arm
of our crossbow next up we’ll want two
more popsicle sticks and a clothespin we
want to attach one popsicle stick to
either side of the outside of our
clothespin we’re going to use the tape
again to attach it to the clothespin but
because we still need the clothespin to
be able to open we can’t just wrap tape
around the whole thing that would keep
it closed so we need to attach the
sticks one at a time wrapping the tape
through the inside of the clothespin our
popsicle stick should overlap the
clothespin by about one inch
our popsicle sticks are now attached to
the clothespin and they can still open
and close with ease we now want to take
the third piece of the pen barrel and
secure that between the two ends of the
two popsicle sticks however before that
gets secured in place we need to take
our wider band and put it between the
two sticks once our barrel is attached
we won’t be able to get the rubber band
in and out anymore
before when we attach the pen barrel
between two sticks we left a small gap
between the edge of the sticks and where
the pen was we now want to have the
barrel of the pen extend a little bit
beyond the popsicle sticks with the ends
of the popsicle sticks secure it around
the barrel of the pen the clothespin
can’t open the same way it did before
but it should still be able to open
enough to work as a firing mechanism we
now need to fit this end of the pen
barrel and popsicle sticks in between
these two popsicle sticks it’s gonna be
a pretty tight fit and these popsicle
sticks will need to flex quite a bit
before it really gets in there let’s now
use our regular rubber band to secure
the attachment point between the
cross-arm and the rest of the body of
our crossbow take the wider of end and
stretch it around the two ends of the
cross arm this is why we left a gap
between the end of the pen and the end
of the popsicle sticks it will hold the
wide rubber bands securely in place we
can now see that when we draw the proper
band back and place it between the jaws
of the clothespin we can squeeze on the
back and it’ll fire we still should have
this plastic collar that was a part of
our pen and we can fit that into the
barrel in the front of the crossbow this
will help our crossbow fire just a
little bit more accurately now let’s
draw back the rubber band and fit the
pen in through the collar at the front I
find the easiest way to load this thing
so it will accurately fire is to first
fit the pen into the jaws of the
clothespin and then draw the rubber band
back behind it the rubber band should be
pushing up against the back of the pen
so that when we squeeze the clothespin
it will fire we think went about 25 feet
not too bad it may also work to take the
pen barrel and just press it all the way
back into the clothespin jaws but
sometimes sometimes that might happen
but also sometimes the body of the pen
isn’t quite strong enough to push
against the rubber band and may end up
bending and you may have a hard time
getting it all the way back into the
closed end looks pretty well that time
let’s shoot this Styrofoam cup
this is working pretty well but I think
we can clean this up make it pretty and
just all-around have a slightly nicer
build let’s see what we can come up with
our first crossbow is built and for our
second updated one we’ve got the same
basic materials for popsicle sticks a
clothespin a pen and a wide rubber band
same first step as well let’s
disassemble our pen and let’s chop this
pen down into pieces I’ll have one piece
the same length as the three that I cut
out the first time but the other two
pieces I’m actually going to cut a
little bit shorter so they’re just
attached to the ends of the popsicle
stick to arms and not all the way into
now let’s take two of our popsicle
sticks and our two short pieces and try
and secure that all together using some
super glue to make the glue adhere a
little bit better to the pen body
let’s scuff it up with some sandpaper
super glue is quite strong but it
doesn’t cure instantly so while the
first two pieces of the pen tube are
gluing on to the popsicle stick
let’s also attach our two popsicle
sticks onto our clothespin it’s holding
all right so let’s put glue on the top
of the pens and then the other side of
the popsicle stick on top of that let’s
fit our rubber band in between our
popsicle sticks into the clothespin and
then add our third piece of pen body in
between those sticks now super glue can
be pretty strong stuff but I want to
make sure that this isn’t going to tear
itself apart when I’m firing so let’s
reinforce it with some hot glue
we’ve got the two halves of our crossbow
ready now let’s mount them together
pretty much the same way we did before
only instead of a rubber band we’re
gonna use glue to make it permanent I
find the easiest way to fit it through
the gap is to push it in sideways and
then twist it so you just a couple drops
of super glue and then reinforce it
using our hot glue let’s insert the
caller the same way we did before the
main build of this crossbow is coming
along nicely so it’s time to add on a
few upgrades
let’s take apart another pen and we’ll
save the caller and the ink cartridge
that we use as our ammunition let’s take
a bit of hot glue and use that to attach
the plastic collar underneath the arm of
the crossbow the second color on the
bottom of our crossbow can now be used
to hold extra ammunition so your
crossbow is just one shot before you
have to go find where your pen landed
another modification I want to make to
this crossbow is to give it a laser
sight so we’re gonna mount a laser
pointer right on top of this thing to
make sure that our laser pointer isn’t
pointing in the wrong direction let’s
add another small piece of popsicle
stick on the back to keep our laser
perfectly level with the rest of our
crossbow before we attach our laser
pointer you know that we like to add
some color to things here so let’s grab
some paint and make this thing look
really fancy I’m going to leave this
spot and most of this stick unpainted
because that’s where I’m going to glue
the laser pointer on but everything else
I think is going to get painted this is
just acrylic paint that usually costs
about one dollar for a bottle at any
now once we stretch our rubber band
across the front of our bow it is ready
to use now we need to test out our
laser-guided popsicle stick crossbow
let’s grab a target and start shooting
[Music]
we’ve got our two crossbows let’s test
them out three two one Oh right between
the gap of the cups all right now I’ve
got another shot right here wish I were
that good of a shot to do that on
purpose
all right trying the skin three two one
the exact same spot all right let’s try
the other crossbow with the laser sight
maybe that’ll fix the problem here we go
three two one ha all right
trying not to go through the gap three
two one ha cleared that top cover right
[Music]
a miniature crossbow made from popsicle
sticks a clothespin and a rubber band
and of course the upgraded version where
we painted it added a laser guidance
system and an additional shot held on to
the bottom these things work really well
get pretty good distance on them about
30 feet and of course they’re great for
target practice hey guys thanks for
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watch next that’s it for now have fun be safe and see you tomorrow