# The rest of the Eiffel Tower series



## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

I have been playing with the Eiffel Tower design for awhile now. You already saw the big E. Red Cedar one I killed the mouse with, well here is some of the rest. The two that are banded up on the sides are Flowering Dogwood that are still in the shoot/fit/grind process. Finish is hand rubbed in BLO and several coats of Helmsman spar on the ones that are actually entirely finished. Every time I make one of these they end up getting smaller and smaller it seems...and they still work just fine with my normal doubled 1/2 inch wide by 7.5 inch long TBG band sets I use for critter gettin with .440 round balls.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

First up is flowering dogwood with a staghorn sumac palmswell

Ist pic does not belong..oops


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

Second is of Honeysuckle that was dead standing and hard as granite to work.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

Third is some spalted wormwood maple that was really dead when I found it. This one soaked up a bunch of thin c.a before I finished it in Helmsman. I left it rather rough and tumble to keep the worm tracks and spalting all in theme.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

Fourth is flowering dogwood that came from the family deer camp woods.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

5th is the smaller E. Red Cedar


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## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

Like em' all, man! Nice work!


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## honorary pie (Feb 12, 2015)

Rad! You're really getting a stockpile.. Too many for one man... :what:


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

<---------------long time hoarder/builder of all manner of things that go bang/launch and shoot things..................................................Ain't no such thing as too many or too much. I have an illness and I accept that fact so it really is not an illness afterall kinda thing.

Thanks for the kind words.


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## leon13 (Oct 4, 2012)

I like them Al 
but the last one oh oh what a grain so beauty full 
If she ever wants a new home tell her she is welcome 
Any time


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## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

Ain't nothin' there that wouldn't make me smile while shootin' it. Nice work.


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## devils son in law (Sep 2, 2014)

dang.... :shocked:


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Usually I can pick out a favorite when I see a gaggle of forks, but -- MAN, YOU DO SOME FANTASTIC WORK!!! I love every one of those. :cookie: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:


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## fred45 (May 15, 2014)

I love the simple shape. is that in the template area?


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## d3moncow (Aug 29, 2014)

well, you've been busy.  Those all look fantastic, but I love the honeysuckle one. That grain is wonderful!


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL !


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## JohnKrakatoa (Nov 28, 2013)

oh man, this is so funny, when I was drawing a ss design a few weeks ago, I also thought of using the eiffel tower turned on its head as a ss inspiration.


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

What you have done so handsomely with so many Eiffel tower slingshots you have made, is to create the widest deepest fork possible for a natural fork without sacrificing strength of the fork itself in doing so. That means the rubber and pouch have less or even -no- interference or congestion as the bands/pouch pass through the fork smoothly without hitting the forks and therefore without deflecting the shot or slowing down velocity. Essentially your series is a natural chalice design of which I am a great fan. The chalice permits the most space for the bands to exit the power stroke and carry through until the ammo is released. This of course enhances accuracy the best any fork design can.

Bill Hays, maker and engineer of very advanced slingshots (pocketpredator.com) did a video on wide forks vs narrow forks and found the velocity of a wide fork was actually a bit more than with a narrow fork...he used a chronograph and same bands to prove it. I suspect that band congestion at the fork itself as the bands entered the fork space reduced the velocity somewhat of the narrow fork slingshot vs the wide fork slingshot. Anyway, your wide deep forks promise to do you proud! I myself am with a couple recent projects, posted on Susi gallery, a natural fork, wide deep design advocate as well.

Bill's designs all incorporate wide deep forks and well radiused forks with which he lights matches, cuts cards and does some miraculous shooting.

I applaud your use of naturals and your unique design. Hats off!!! One of your forks, the one with the contrasting wood handle inlay/lamination, is similar to a couple of my all naturals..fat forks. http://slingshotforum.com/gallery/image/23506-eucalyptus-1-and-2/ It's cool how we can fancy pants a natural fork and make it more aesthetic with the addition of some laminations.

I see you filled a longitudinal crack with what appears to be epoxy. I do this too. But next project I want to follow another poster's method of using a dye in the epoxy to make it really contrasty. Alas I can't find a source here for fluorescent resin dyes...I'd love to make an electric blue filled crack or toxic green. Ummm.. possibly mixing some fluorescent spray paint with the resin...will have to experiment with that to make sure it doesn't ruin the resin.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

Thanks folks it is something I do to unwind from the world.

d3moncow...That honeysuckle one is mine all mine, I already adopted it into the keeper hook by the front door. After I made that one I went out and got more honeysuckle forks. Finding the right fork that is big enough and not split/rotted/cracked on honeysuckle is a lot like the needle in the haystack thing.

Chuck Daehler: Thanks, and I too am a fan of the Chalice design and it was more than partially responsible for the Eiffel Tower's evolution, that and simple results along with efficient laziness. I had slightly better results making the top of the Chalice forks flat to each other and I was also playing with pickle forks at about the same time and all these things had their part to play. I use a forstner bit (on the drillpress with a solid jig) to open the fork area, which prevents that area that can be a pain in tookiss to sand (the laziness part) and tight Y's also impedes the bands, so win win. The first one just plain shot great, was stupid accurate and was super super smooth to shoot so I went forth making more. I have made them big and I have made them small. The smaller in size the frame is the larger I make the "fatness" of the handle and it seems to work and I have rather big and muscly hands (I operate heavy machinery). The first lamination of the palmswell I did was just to add some mass for the palm of my chunky hand to ride on as the natty was too skinny. It looked cool and it worked, so I did a few more. Normally I am not a "busy" lamination lover, but the simple added on palmswell does not offend my eyes and they serve a purpose, so I use them. The added on palmswell also allows me to use the occasional wood scrap that would be useless for anything else. Win/win again.

As far as adding color to epoxy that is easy. Get the little glass bottle of Testers model car paint in the color you want and simply mix a small amount of it into real epoxy (not the 5 minute crap) . I make front "dovetailed" sights for revolvers with that combo and it takes that punishment just fine. I have also used and prefer Pro-Tec powder coating paint for painting fishing jigs too. That works great and Pro-Tec comes in fluorescent and glow colors. You can go with a lot more of the powder( MORE COLOR) without making the epoxy weak with the powders. The powders actually work as a filler of sorts and also makes the epoxy tougher as it takes the brittleness out of the epoxy. I learned that trick from a very nice old Minnonite man that taught me how to make self bows from a stick of hickory/osage wood. After making bows out of a stick making slingshots is comparatively super simple.

Fred45: No it is not in the template area as there is no fixed size. If you keep the outside V/ Y shape of a close/tight forked natural and open up the inside of the fork with an appropriately sized (inch to inch and a half) forstner bit in a jig the results will take you to the Eiffel Tower design almost by default. You would have to fight it to make it not work out. The forktops are dead flat to each other too. I did not set out to make a slingshot that looks like the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was the result of evolution of design basically. Make sure the bottom of the fork is a perfect circle , follow the V straight up on both sides and keep the fork tops flat to one another and WALLA. The "pistol grip" look that would make non slingshot folks shoot the frame backwards is just the way I make a palmswell on these if Ma Nature gave me enough material to work with.


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## Sharker (Sep 15, 2013)

Very beautiful work


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

A template of sorts made from a homogenized group of tracings of several Eiffel Tower frames. I made the handle straight, but using naturals the handle has not come out perfectly straight yet, not sure you would want it to be straight. I tried loading it into the templates but this old ditch digger failed epically to get that task done.


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## fred45 (May 15, 2014)

:naughty: great idea, my board cuts suck, so far, so I do nattys and that looks GREAT, thanks for the pic


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## fred45 (May 15, 2014)

cedar and osage


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Thanks. I love your work. I'm going to give this a go as soon as I get some more natural forks. It's just the right size for me!


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