Zed's Technical Writings

The flip is an important part of the action of a OTF (over the fork) slingshot design.

When the band is under tension, the fork tips provide the anchor point that applies tension and also sets the aim point
When the tension is mostly released, and the projectile is mostly travelling under momentum, it carries the fork out of the way of the...

Many of us work somewhat in isolation. If we only read the forums, a few voices tend to dominate the discussion and these tend to be at the extremes. Therefore, I launched a series of polls to get a feel for the forum's general shooting and buying habits. The polls have run for a year, so I think we have enough data to draw some conclusions. I will...

Abstract:

Over normal target distances, using round metal balls, the effect of spin is almost negligible. Pay it no heed.

However, various factors will increase the effect of spin:
long range
high velocity
off center mass distribution
irregular shape
surface texture
large, low density...

Over the last year I have done quite a bit of band testing. In the end I decided to stick to Thera-band because it is the gold standard, being both durable and fast, but if it's not available locally, you may want to test other exercise bands and medical latex sheet.

Some materials shoot a lot better than others. However, it's easy to tell if a rubber...

A slingshot gun is an elastic-powered slingshot that uses a stock and trigger mechanism to increase power and accuracy. In this blog entry, I post some discussion, examples, patents and prior art relating to this topic. I have a fair amount of experience in this subject, following several builds over decades of obsession and it was research of slingshot...

I was asked today to help troubleshoot a tube bandset that wore out prematurely by abrading at the left fork tip as it passes through a drilled hole. Tubes are not my area of expertise, but I have hung out on this forum so much that I can pretty much guess what the experts would say. Just in case others who are more experienced may disagree, I reproduce...

Introduction

A common question asked by beginners is What's the best way to cut out a board cut slingshot frame? There are many many tools and techniques that can be used to successfully cut out a board cut and that's the reason for this style's great popularity. Anyone can do it with what they have to hand. That said, I'll...

This blog entry encapsulates my earlier forum posts on band chains (link) and some subsequent musings prompted by the recent resurgence of chained bands. It is not meant to be controversial, nor detract from others' writings in support of band chains. Band chains may...

A friend asked me how to adjust the width of the band to shoot bigger balls. I figure it's a common question that is worth explaining in my blog.

I've tried the Green TB 21.5cm x 7.5 x 5 set up tonight with 3/4" steel balls. It works fine.

However, I noticed it's too weak with 12mm steel.

Question: what is the better way to a...

I was asked today why people choose different thicknesses of Thera-band and how to adjust band dimensions.


Why?

Thinner bands shoot slightly faster, especially when they shoot light projectiles, but they don't last as long as thicker bands. I generally don't like anything thinner than Silver and only sometimes Black, but the speed...