Rubber band gun
Encyclopedia
A rubber band gun, often abbreviated to RBG, is a toy gun
used to fire one or more rubber band
s (or "elastic bands").
RBGs are often used in live-action games such as Assassins, in which they are common, popular and effective toy weapons. They are also common in offices and classrooms. Rubber band guns have been popular toys at least as far back as the early twentieth century, as evidenced by US patents having been granted for various designs of rubber band gun, beginning before World War II.
This is the simplest form of rubber band gun. Its firing mechanism consists solely of a clothespin. The gun may have more than one clothespin, thereby allowing more than one band to be fired.
The repeater (or revolver) RBG is capable of firing 10 or more rubber bands, semi-automatically.
Repeater RBGs are available in a variety of semi-realistic shapes, such as Luger style pistols, rifle
s, and Tommy guns
.
The repeater RBG is usually made of wood
, and has a plastic
firing mechanism, consisting of a toothed wheel onto which the bands are hooked, and a sprung trigger/escapement
that releases the wheel by one notch, releasing a rubber band every time the trigger is pulled.
The original, patented (by Surefire Products), tripod-mounted rubber band Gatling gun
was featured on the Gadget Show on UK television in March 2007 and January 2010.
A twelve-barrel Gatling gun using twelve-shot repeater mechanisms can fire 144 rubber bands automatically. It is fired by manually rotating a crank
handle and pulling a firing trigger.
, are among the latest developments in the world of the rubber band gun. In November 2007, Anthony Smith completed the Disintegrator, a 288-shot motorised rubber band gun with 2 counter-rotating rotors of 12 barrels each. This gun can be mounted on a tripod or fired from the hip, and can fire more than 40 rounds per second.
There are two different flavors.
A spool, with a string tied around it, pulls off rubber bands one-by-one as the string is already wound up around the barrel. The string is wound around one barrel, then a rubber band placed on that barrel, then the next barrel etc.
Each barrel has a semi-auto mechanism on it with a makeshift trigger that is pressed once it crosses the activator.
Perhaps the most straightforward way to achieve machine gun–like rapid firing, a simple slide mechanism includes a barrel and a slide. The barrel includes a series of retaining notches at its rear end and one or more retaining notches at its forward end. A single rubber band is hooked onto each of the rear retaining notches and stretched and hooked over a forward retaining notch. The slide is a wedge-shaped structure which is able to slide along the barrel from front to rear, sequentially prying each loaded rubber band out of its respective rear retaining notch and allowing it to be discharged. Both the slide and the barrel may be fitted with handles or grips. An operator uses one hand to grasp the barrel grip and the other hand to grasp the slide grip. An advantage of this design, beyond its simplicity, it that it gives the operator complete control over rate of rubber band discharge. Slide mechanism designs have been adapted to be motor driven.
Manually driven Slide Mechanism (add picture of Pull-Auto)
Motor-driven Slide Mechanism (add picture of P211 Tandem Barrel II Machine Gun)
Fully automatic mechanims for rubber band guns are analogous to fully automatic firearm mechanisms, in that the energy used to drive the gun's mechanism is derived from the same source as that which provides energy to propel the projectiles. In the case of fully automatic rubber band guns, the mechanism-driving energy is the elastic potential energy stored in the streched rubber band amunition loaded onto the gun. Fully automatic designs pose significant challenges to designers, such as how to control rate of fire.
Fully automatic mechanism utilizing a rotationally delayed retaining cog (add picture of Yeti30)
Fully automatic mechanism utilizing a lever-arm-deflection-rotation configuration (add picture of RotaryMek-12X)
Fully automatic mechanim utilizing a "domino-effect" sequential retention configuration (add picture of MagMek-18)
Occasionally other materials like bamboo skewers and/or other materials may be used in the making of the gun.
Sights, fore grips and magazines to hold extra rubberbands may also be made, according to liking of the owner however.
. Such constructions can include handheld pistols, automatics and sniper rifles. Some K'NEX guns work using the escapement mechanism seen in the repeater RBG, while some more advanced types have hinge triggers that are more reliable, allow for more bands on a barrel, and have a more realistic trigger feel.
. It is capable of firing 11 rounds per second. Lots of other builders on YouTube followed suit, building string-operated miniguns, while some even shoot bricks.
A whole load of RBGs can be built out of LEGO, from simple hinge guns to extremely complicated fire-rate dampening automatic rifles. It is difficult to devise a suitable, practical magazine gun system, though tries have been made. Currently there is a way: but it involves replacing the entire firing mechanism.
The RBG mechanism can also be used to launch light projectiles like small bricks, all the way to wooden skewers.
Lego RBGs are quite reliable, without all the complexity of K'nex. A lot of LEGO rubber band guns have been made and posted to Youtube.com, some even firing small bricks using the mechanism. A young adult under the name of Kaspall (caspall, capalll, or kaspalll) was known to make several lego guns and made an appearance on television in Austria.
Gun
A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...
used to fire one or more rubber band
Rubber band
A rubber band is a short length of rubber and latex formed in the shape of a loop and is commonly used to hold multiple objects together...
s (or "elastic bands").
RBGs are often used in live-action games such as Assassins, in which they are common, popular and effective toy weapons. They are also common in offices and classrooms. Rubber band guns have been popular toys at least as far back as the early twentieth century, as evidenced by US patents having been granted for various designs of rubber band gun, beginning before World War II.
Clothespin pistol
Multiple load- Single fire
This RBG allows user to load many rubber bands around the handle of the gun, in the firing position. One rubber band is staged in the firing position and is shot by pulling a pivoting trigger. It is usually cheaper than a repeater pistol with fewer moving pieces.Repeater pistol
Semi-automatic firearm
A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
Repeater RBGs are available in a variety of semi-realistic shapes, such as Luger style pistols, rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s, and Tommy guns
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
.
The repeater RBG is usually made of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
, and has a plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
firing mechanism, consisting of a toothed wheel onto which the bands are hooked, and a sprung trigger/escapement
Escapement
In mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device that transfers energy to the timekeeping element and enables counting the number of oscillations of the timekeeping element...
that releases the wheel by one notch, releasing a rubber band every time the trigger is pulled.
Gatling gun
A rubber band Gatling gun consists of between 3 and 12 repeater RBGs arranged on a cylindrical "rotor". The rotor rotates and each individual barrel is fired as it reaches the top of its locus.The original, patented (by Surefire Products), tripod-mounted rubber band Gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
was featured on the Gadget Show on UK television in March 2007 and January 2010.
A twelve-barrel Gatling gun using twelve-shot repeater mechanisms can fire 144 rubber bands automatically. It is fired by manually rotating a crank
Crank (mechanism)
A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...
handle and pulling a firing trigger.
Miniguns
Motorized RBGs with rotary barrels, similar to the MinigunMinigun
The Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire , employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source...
, are among the latest developments in the world of the rubber band gun. In November 2007, Anthony Smith completed the Disintegrator, a 288-shot motorised rubber band gun with 2 counter-rotating rotors of 12 barrels each. This gun can be mounted on a tripod or fired from the hip, and can fire more than 40 rounds per second.
There are two different flavors.
- String-operated:
A spool, with a string tied around it, pulls off rubber bands one-by-one as the string is already wound up around the barrel. The string is wound around one barrel, then a rubber band placed on that barrel, then the next barrel etc.
- Semi-automatic mechanism operated:
Each barrel has a semi-auto mechanism on it with a makeshift trigger that is pressed once it crosses the activator.
Other Rapid-fire Designs
- Slide mechanism:
Perhaps the most straightforward way to achieve machine gun–like rapid firing, a simple slide mechanism includes a barrel and a slide. The barrel includes a series of retaining notches at its rear end and one or more retaining notches at its forward end. A single rubber band is hooked onto each of the rear retaining notches and stretched and hooked over a forward retaining notch. The slide is a wedge-shaped structure which is able to slide along the barrel from front to rear, sequentially prying each loaded rubber band out of its respective rear retaining notch and allowing it to be discharged. Both the slide and the barrel may be fitted with handles or grips. An operator uses one hand to grasp the barrel grip and the other hand to grasp the slide grip. An advantage of this design, beyond its simplicity, it that it gives the operator complete control over rate of rubber band discharge. Slide mechanism designs have been adapted to be motor driven.
Manually driven Slide Mechanism (add picture of Pull-Auto)
Motor-driven Slide Mechanism (add picture of P211 Tandem Barrel II Machine Gun)
- Fully automatic mechanisms:
Fully automatic mechanims for rubber band guns are analogous to fully automatic firearm mechanisms, in that the energy used to drive the gun's mechanism is derived from the same source as that which provides energy to propel the projectiles. In the case of fully automatic rubber band guns, the mechanism-driving energy is the elastic potential energy stored in the streched rubber band amunition loaded onto the gun. Fully automatic designs pose significant challenges to designers, such as how to control rate of fire.
Fully automatic mechanism utilizing a rotationally delayed retaining cog (add picture of Yeti30)
Fully automatic mechanism utilizing a lever-arm-deflection-rotation configuration (add picture of RotaryMek-12X)
Fully automatic mechanim utilizing a "domino-effect" sequential retention configuration (add picture of MagMek-18)
Ice-cream stick RBGs
Rubber band guns can be made from ice-cream sticks. The individual sticks are held together by either rubber bands, tape or glue. They can also be cut or carved to the required shape. It is generally limited to pistols and sniper rifles, as only one or two shots can be loaded on most guns, but semi-automatic ice-cream stick guns have been made by determined amateurs. They can also be adapted to fire arrows or other small objects with the rubber bands. In some guns, the handle doubles as a trigger, but using triggers provide much better accuracy.Occasionally other materials like bamboo skewers and/or other materials may be used in the making of the gun.
Sights, fore grips and magazines to hold extra rubberbands may also be made, according to liking of the owner however.
K'nex RBGs
Rubber band guns can be built from K'NEXK'NEX
K'Nex is a brand name of a construction toy system invented by Joel Glickman, designed and produced by Industries of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, USA. Currently Michael Araten is the president of the organization. The name is, presumably, a phonetic variation of connects, and is pronounced the same way...
. Such constructions can include handheld pistols, automatics and sniper rifles. Some K'NEX guns work using the escapement mechanism seen in the repeater RBG, while some more advanced types have hinge triggers that are more reliable, allow for more bands on a barrel, and have a more realistic trigger feel.
Lego RBGs
In early 2007, Sebastian Dick built a motorized Gatling RBG entirely from LegoLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
. It is capable of firing 11 rounds per second. Lots of other builders on YouTube followed suit, building string-operated miniguns, while some even shoot bricks.
A whole load of RBGs can be built out of LEGO, from simple hinge guns to extremely complicated fire-rate dampening automatic rifles. It is difficult to devise a suitable, practical magazine gun system, though tries have been made. Currently there is a way: but it involves replacing the entire firing mechanism.
The RBG mechanism can also be used to launch light projectiles like small bricks, all the way to wooden skewers.
Lego RBGs are quite reliable, without all the complexity of K'nex. A lot of LEGO rubber band guns have been made and posted to Youtube.com, some even firing small bricks using the mechanism. A young adult under the name of Kaspall (caspall, capalll, or kaspalll) was known to make several lego guns and made an appearance on television in Austria.