09-27-2017, 04:12 AM
(09-26-2017, 11:24 AM)Cooler Wrote: In high school shop we had to make a team project.
My friend and I decided to make a crossbow (shoulder fired) from plans in Mechanics Illustrated. The trigger mechanism in the article was to be made from Plexiglas, the stock from wood, and the bow was to be an actual bow from a bow and arrow set.
We modified the plans.
We made the trigger mechanism from steel, the stock from walnut and the bow from a leaf spring from a car. The "string" was piano wire.
My father was in the plating business and he had the leaf spring, after it was shaped by us, polished chrome plated.
When the project was done we found that we were not strong enough to ***** [draw] the bow. We then cross drilled for a steel pivot in the stock and built a lever to enable us to ***** [draw] it. But we could only do so if the stock were held in a vise. Note: The synonym for "draw" was censored and replaced with ******
We turned three bolts (ammo) from steel.
Our teacher supervised the firing of the cross bow.
We took it, along with several cinderblocks and a target, to the field behind the school. I was on the rifle team so I got the honors of firing the cross bow first (and last!)
The target was about 50 feet away. I shot from the prone position and took aim. There was no recoil, just a little “prong!” sound. The next thing we saw was the cinderblock disintegrating into small chunks and dust.
We got an “A” on the project (it looked outstanding), but the teacher confiscated it as “too dangerous” (it probably was, especially when we wanted to “see what it could do”).
Since then I‘ve always had great respect for crossbows; they are powerful, silent, easy to shoot and have no recoil.
Yours looks far more traditional than ours did (though both did sport a shiny metal bow).
Addendum:
I just went on line and I see there are several videos showing leaf spring crossbows. They all look very crude. Ours looked like a fine piece of furniture (though it was over 53 years ago and my mind might be polishing the apple a bit.)
That's a cool story
