Building a Slingshot Cannon for Fun and Persuasion

I started by taking an exercise device that looked like a cross between a slingshot and a catapult, it was made of metal and had a bunch of weird attachments on it. I knew right away that this would be the perfect project to work on because I wanted to make a slingshot for a game I was playing with some friends. The exercise device had a few holes in it and some cables hanging from it, so I just drilled a hole and made a little slot below it. This slot is going to hook the knot at the end of the slingshot line so that I can pull it back and hold it in place while I load up the slingshot.

I was going to take advantage of all the white material here for the candy cane look, so I used an orbital sander and some sandpaper to get rid of all the printed markings on the outside. If you use an orbital sander, just beware that if you run it too fast it'll actually kind of melt the plastic while you're sanding and it'll gum up your sanding pad pretty quickly. Then I got to use one of my favorite tools duct tape. I actually couldn't think of a simpler way to add a spiral red stripe to this whole thing, so I just wrapped it in duct tape. It took a little bit of trial and error to get it to wrap around the curve and had to go back and clean it up and replace a few pieces but in the end they look just fine for what it's doing.

We picked up this crazy octopus exercise thingy and really we just need the resistance bands out of it to use for the slingshot. So we're going to take this apart feed those down through it and then make a little sling that we can drop stuff in to shoot. I got the elastic bands out of this little tool, and then I had to cut off the handles which were just made of foam. It turned out that there were four separate pieces of a resistance band in this and I only needed two for the project so I can hang on to the other two for future use.

To make a really crude sling for the slingshot, I just cut out a rectangle of material a little bit bigger than I thought it needed to be. It turned out I could have actually gone larger and it would have worked a little bit better. I wrapped the edges over the resistance band to make sure that they had enough room for the band to come in and out and then folded those lines over. I added a really simple stitch to both sides just making a pocket that I could slide the bands through.

This isn't supposed to last for a long time so I didn't do any fancy stitching or reinforce it, it just needed to work for a couple of days. After I fed the bands through, I used some zip ties to temporarily and then permanently hold the bands to the outside of the cannon. Just trying to figure this out as we go, I don't really have a plan, so I crammed it in there and I was worried that it would end up laying down flat and not actually grab any of the stuff that we wanted to shoot but when I stuck it in there the way it fits kind of makes like an eyeball so there's a really good little shape in there to hopefully grab some ornaments and other stuff.

I think it's gonna work to add the pull string. I cut two small holes in the sling added grommets to those holes and then fed the string through, so this looks pretty good as it is but when you put tension on both sides it just collapses down, that's not going to give you enough surface area to actually push anything out of the cannon so we need to add something here in the middle to give us some surface area. I did a couple of different tests one with a piece of foam but I ended up with a wooden circle on the inside of the sling and it worked out really well.

They used hot glue just to hold the whole thing together, this is super janky but it's just for fun. The edges on the PVC were still a little bit sharp so I cut down some plastic tubing and made a slit from end to end. This tubing fit right over the edge of the PVC giving it a rounded surface so that it didn't cut through the resistance bands when they were under tension.

After test firing at several times my thumb started to hurt because it's actually really hard to push this not over that little edge, so I took a piece of metal drill and made a hole in it and then round it over one edge. So this is actually what catches on the gun and then you can just push this with your thumb, it works much better and it's easier on your hands.

After a lot of testing I found out that the paper towel worked great as wadding in this case and as long as you push the decorations all the way down to the bottom you get a pretty consistent shot. The only bad thing is that sometimes it doesn't shoot as far as it should, but that's okay because it's just for fun.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're gonna decorate the tree with a candy cane cannon it's Christmas time which is one of my favorite times of the year and usually I'll do a decoration or some sort of gift but this year I figured to just do something for fun so we're gonna decorate the tree with this thing I thought about doing something like a potato gun but I really didn't want that much power behind it so I went with a slingshot instead I figured making a PVC candy cane would be a pretty good way to hold all of the stuff that I was gonna shoot and it would just kind of look the part this is the same drainage PVC that I used in my dust collection system it's quite a bit cheaper than what you would use for plumbing and it works fine for a lot of applications like this I cut a few pieces down to size and use PVC cement to glue it all together if you're not familiar PVC cement is a little bit different than other glues it's actually a solvent and melts the two pieces of plastic together right on the surface making for a good seal on one of the curve pieces I marked where I thought the center of the barrel would be and then drilled a hole and made a little slot below it this slot is to hook the knot at the end of the slingshot line so that I can pull it back and hold it in place while I load up the slingshot since I was going to take advantage of all the white material here for the candy cane look I used an orbital sander and some sandpaper to get rid of all the printed markings on the outside if you use an orbital sander just beware that if you run it too fast it'll actually kind of melt the plastic while you're sanding and it'll gum up your sanding pad pretty quickly then I got to use one of my favorite tools duct tape I actually couldn't think of a simpler way to add a spiral red stripe to this whole thing so I just wrapped it in duct tape it took a little bit of trial and error to get it to wrap around the curve and had to go back and clean it up and replace a few pieces but in the end they look just fine for what it's doing we picked up this crazy octopus exercise thingy and really we just need the resistance bands out of it to use for the slingshot so we're going to take this apart feed those down through it and then make a little sling that we can drop stuff in to shoot a little bit of persuasion and I got the elastic bands out of this little tool and then I had to cut off the handles which were just made of foam it turned out that there were four separate pieces of a resistance band in this and I only needed two for the project so I can hang on to the other two for future use see my cool game show microphone there I was live-streaming this build on Twitch be sure to check it out there'll be a link down below to make a really crude sling for the slingshot I just cut out a rectangle of material a little bit bigger than I thought it needed to be it turned out I could have actually gone larger and it would have worked a little bit better I wrapped the edges over the resistance band to make sure that they had enough room for the band to come in and out and then folded those lines over I added a really simple stitch to both sides just making a pocket that I could slide the bands through this isn't supposed to last for a long time so I didn't do any fancy stitching or reinforce it it just needed to work for a couple of days after I fed the bands through I used some zip ties to temporarily and then permanently hold the bands to the outside of the cannon just trying to figure this out as we go I don't really have a plan we crammed it in there and I was worried that it would end up laying down flat and not actually grab any of the stuff that we wanted to shoot but when I stuck it in there the way it fits kind of makes like an eyeball so there's a really good little shape in there to hopefully grab some ornaments and other stuff I think it's gonna work to add the pull string I cut two small holes in the sling added grommets to those holes and then fed the string through so this looks pretty good as it is but when you put tension on both sides it just collapses down that's not going to give you enough surface area to actually push anything out of the cannon so we need to add something here in the middle to give us some surface area I did a couple of different tests one with a piece of foam but I ended up with a wooden circle on the inside of the sling and it worked out really well they used hot glue just to hold the whole thing together this is super janky but it's just for fun the edges on the PVC were still a little bit sharp so I cut down some plastic tubing and made a slit from end to end this tubing fit right over the edge of the PVC giving it a rounded surface so that it didn't cut through the resistance bands when they were under tension after test firing at several times my thumb started to hurt because it's actually really hard to push this not over that little edge so I took a piece of metal drill the hole in it and then round it over one edge so this is actually what catches on the gun and then you can just push this with your thumb it works much better and it's easier on your hands after a lot of testing I found out the paper towel worked great as wadding in this case and as long as you push the decorations all the way down to the bottom you get a pretty consistent shot the only bad thing about this testing is that now I have Christmas decorations all over the shop we had already decorated our tree in the house and I was kind of expecting a mess so we set another one up in the driveway and loaded up the cannon to decorate it Oh standing on ithey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're gonna decorate the tree with a candy cane cannon it's Christmas time which is one of my favorite times of the year and usually I'll do a decoration or some sort of gift but this year I figured to just do something for fun so we're gonna decorate the tree with this thing I thought about doing something like a potato gun but I really didn't want that much power behind it so I went with a slingshot instead I figured making a PVC candy cane would be a pretty good way to hold all of the stuff that I was gonna shoot and it would just kind of look the part this is the same drainage PVC that I used in my dust collection system it's quite a bit cheaper than what you would use for plumbing and it works fine for a lot of applications like this I cut a few pieces down to size and use PVC cement to glue it all together if you're not familiar PVC cement is a little bit different than other glues it's actually a solvent and melts the two pieces of plastic together right on the surface making for a good seal on one of the curve pieces I marked where I thought the center of the barrel would be and then drilled a hole and made a little slot below it this slot is to hook the knot at the end of the slingshot line so that I can pull it back and hold it in place while I load up the slingshot since I was going to take advantage of all the white material here for the candy cane look I used an orbital sander and some sandpaper to get rid of all the printed markings on the outside if you use an orbital sander just beware that if you run it too fast it'll actually kind of melt the plastic while you're sanding and it'll gum up your sanding pad pretty quickly then I got to use one of my favorite tools duct tape I actually couldn't think of a simpler way to add a spiral red stripe to this whole thing so I just wrapped it in duct tape it took a little bit of trial and error to get it to wrap around the curve and had to go back and clean it up and replace a few pieces but in the end they look just fine for what it's doing we picked up this crazy octopus exercise thingy and really we just need the resistance bands out of it to use for the slingshot so we're going to take this apart feed those down through it and then make a little sling that we can drop stuff in to shoot a little bit of persuasion and I got the elastic bands out of this little tool and then I had to cut off the handles which were just made of foam it turned out that there were four separate pieces of a resistance band in this and I only needed two for the project so I can hang on to the other two for future use see my cool game show microphone there I was live-streaming this build on Twitch be sure to check it out there'll be a link down below to make a really crude sling for the slingshot I just cut out a rectangle of material a little bit bigger than I thought it needed to be it turned out I could have actually gone larger and it would have worked a little bit better I wrapped the edges over the resistance band to make sure that they had enough room for the band to come in and out and then folded those lines over I added a really simple stitch to both sides just making a pocket that I could slide the bands through this isn't supposed to last for a long time so I didn't do any fancy stitching or reinforce it it just needed to work for a couple of days after I fed the bands through I used some zip ties to temporarily and then permanently hold the bands to the outside of the cannon just trying to figure this out as we go I don't really have a plan we crammed it in there and I was worried that it would end up laying down flat and not actually grab any of the stuff that we wanted to shoot but when I stuck it in there the way it fits kind of makes like an eyeball so there's a really good little shape in there to hopefully grab some ornaments and other stuff I think it's gonna work to add the pull string I cut two small holes in the sling added grommets to those holes and then fed the string through so this looks pretty good as it is but when you put tension on both sides it just collapses down that's not going to give you enough surface area to actually push anything out of the cannon so we need to add something here in the middle to give us some surface area I did a couple of different tests one with a piece of foam but I ended up with a wooden circle on the inside of the sling and it worked out really well they used hot glue just to hold the whole thing together this is super janky but it's just for fun the edges on the PVC were still a little bit sharp so I cut down some plastic tubing and made a slit from end to end this tubing fit right over the edge of the PVC giving it a rounded surface so that it didn't cut through the resistance bands when they were under tension after test firing at several times my thumb started to hurt because it's actually really hard to push this not over that little edge so I took a piece of metal drill the hole in it and then round it over one edge so this is actually what catches on the gun and then you can just push this with your thumb it works much better and it's easier on your hands after a lot of testing I found out the paper towel worked great as wadding in this case and as long as you push the decorations all the way down to the bottom you get a pretty consistent shot the only bad thing about this testing is that now I have Christmas decorations all over the shop we had already decorated our tree in the house and I was kind of expecting a mess so we set another one up in the driveway and loaded up the cannon to decorate it Oh standing on it\n"