41 replies to this topic

[porcelanowy]

Yellow
OK, I’ve been lurking long enough on the forum. It is time to revile myself and start my own topic

First things first: my name is Rafal, I live in Poland (Cracow to be more specific) and I am a different type of a –holic:
- first and mainly a knife-o-holic;
- then airguns-holic;
- watch-holic (from watches, not watching );
- and in July 2011 I think I fell again in slingshots

I don’t make many slingshots and they are not a showpiece type so there is no need to make a topic for every slingshot I make.

First is my truly first after maybe 20 years and my last slingshot made by my Grandfather
Wild cherry branch cut down during a peeeeeee stop (remember kids: always carry your knife with you ), banded up with football inner tube:



It gave me a lot of joy but the band snapped very quick and I started to look after some serious slingshot making materials.

Very soon I’ve got TBG, an oak fork (sorry for the rough finish) and I started to experiment with different band widths and lengths. Also a matchstick mount was my first in that frame:


I have gave this one away to a friend from polish tactical.pl forum

Then I had a short romance with armbraced slingshot and tubular bands. Didn’t like it thou and sold it:



To be continued...

[porcelanowy]

Somewhere in between I’ve made this ugly natural to experiment with different ammo (cherry wood + TBG 200x25x20 + kangaroo pouch):

but I had a nasty accident with this fork: one of the bands snapped, the frame slipped from my palm and hit me in the lower lip – after 6 weeks I could still feel the scar inside my mouth.
Next to it there are materials for my first boardcut.

In late summer during the work in my parents garden I’ve gathered some naturals including this oak:

I shaped it for a hammer grip but lost somewhere all my feelings for it and it stays that way ever since.

Here with a slingshot made for my nephew (dogwood + very light TBG):


I don’t want to overload my first posts in this topic with pictures, so that’s it for now
But please stay tuned. There is more to come
Cheers
Rafal

[Sean]

Hi Rafal,
Welcome to the forum. Looks like your well set, and thanks for taking the time to take the pic's and let us know
your methods and such. Those are fine looking slingshot's. Looks like your well set up for ammo as well.

Sean

[newconvert]

nice work, just sand around your bandsets to make them last longer, but the rough cut looks great, and welcome

[Charles]

Hello Rafal,

I enjoyed your account and your photos very much. Thanks for posting these. Just recently someone asked me what my favorite place in Europe was ... I said Cracow ... I love the city, and everyone was very friendly when I was there.

Cheers ..... Charles

[Rayshot]

It's great that you are posting. Welcome. Glad to see and hear your adventures with slingshots. Except the Slingshot to mouth connection.

[Karok01]

Yeah... I came to slingshots by way of airguns too....

[Dayhiker]

Great post and welcome!

[mckee]

welcome and nice slingshots

[Bob Fionda]

Welcome and nice work.

[cedar hunter]

Hello and welcome, thank you for the post and pics.

[Jesus Freak]

Hello welcome to the forum and nice work!

[alfshooter]

Fantastic story, I'm glad you to recover your fondness for the slingshot, I'll be careful I'm sure we'll see good jobs.

Cheers ..... alf

[porcelanowy]

Yellow

@Sean – all my tricks I have learned here and at Joerg’s Sprave forum/blog so nothing new for you I am afraid As for the ammo: I am shooting 17mm glass balls. Steel is too expensive for me, pebbles too inaccurate and I don’t want to seed led in woodlands where I mostly shoot.

@newconvert – slots in matchstick/TTF and tips in OTF are pretty much polished. Never had a tear at forks, always at the pouch

@Charles – yaap, Cracow is a good place to visit and a lot worse to live in

@Rayshot – well I think an experience paid with a bit of pain is aa experience bought cheap


Thanks for the rest of you Guys for the good words especially that I am aware how poor craftsmanship I have presented

I’ve made a bit more effort working with the next natural that I’ve almost thrown away because the wood seemed to soft for me. But I started to shape it with the knife and sandpapers and it was a pretty easy and quick job. Some mahogany dye and linseed oil and voila:















My initials:


Dennis the Menace set

By far this was my favorite and best looking shooter
Cheers
Rafal

Edited by porcelanowy, 09 February 2012 - 01:10 PM.

[Sean]

By far this was my favorite and best looking shooter

Wow! I'll second that! It's a beaut and you did a fantastic job on it. Like the idea with the zip lock bag as well. Great idea.
How did you get your intials in the wood to look like that? Looks cool.

sean

[Big Sandy]

that last shooter looks awesome, the more naturals i see, the more i want to go searching for branches. Thanks for posting.

[polecat]

good work there the last one looks great nice work again
polecat

[f00by]

That last catty is beautiful! Good job and keep em coming

f00bs

[Jaxter]

They look real nice

[porcelanowy]

Thanks again

Sean, on 09 February 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:

How did you get your intials in the wood to look like that? Looks cool.

30 watts of soldering iron

Big Sandy, on 09 February 2012 - 02:23 PM, said:

that last shooter looks awesome, the more naturals i see, the more i want to go searching for branches. Thanks for posting.

Naturals are grate. First - cheap, all you need is some effort to collect and prepare them. Second - to some point you will not know what you will get. Definitely something worth to try.
Cheers
Rafal

[tokSick]

Hello and welcome,
I like the last one too, it look nice and strong.
Good job, keep going...

[porcelanowy]

It’s time for a first (and last ) boardcut: two scraps of an oak from old doors with a nike t-shirt between soaked and glued with epoxy
Materials:


I’ve made a couple of drawings how it supposed to look and three models of the frame but as you can se I couldn’t decide which one to choose:

It still needs some tuning but I left it that way for now because it is the only slingshot I have right now and I can’t find anywhere a blue dye and I think that color will be a good contrast with the red spacer and gold theraband






I won’t be doing boardcuts anymore. It is a pain in the ass to cutout a given shape if you have only a copying saw with a wolfram blade, small vice on a stool and a knife to handle




Now I have steady temperatures around minus 15-20 centigrade so it is time to work with another naturals, experiment with kangaroo leather, maybe make a micarta frame?
From left: old hammer, ergo side shooter, a piece of “something” for something else, theraband, and kangaroo pouches:


"Th-th-th-that's all folks!"… for now.
Cheers
Rafal

[Quercusuber]

You are truly a slingshot lover ...Nice pics, especially the tainted one!!!

[f00by]

I really like your design! Any chance of it being added to the shared design section?

-f00bs

[porcelanowy]

Yellow
Thanks Quercusuber

f00by, on 10 February 2012 - 03:24 PM, said:

I really like your design! Any chance of it being added to the shared design section?

It shouldn’t be a problem… if I find the drawings
I will post them here with the next slingshot.
Cheers
Rafal