# Try cutting your tube bands down the length



## msholit (Nov 17, 2010)

Been lurking on this forum for a while so decided to make a first post, i see there's a bit of controversy over flat bands and tubes. So i'm wondering why i never read anything about slicing a tube down the middle and making it a flat band.

I've done this a while back and the result was a faster band with more force, requiring MUCH less draw strength.

I dont have a chrony yet, but it definately registers on my ' finger snap pain o'meter' as more powerful than a standard commercially available slingshot tube.

oh, and im currently working on a compound pulleyed slingshot rifle with collapsible stock... well that's if the parts ever get here.


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## BaneofSmallGame (Sep 22, 2010)

I've never heard of that. Sounds genius......and innovative if what you say is true.









Do you have any pictures of the bands and attachment you could share?

Also, do they shoot well with heavy or light ammo?

Great experimentation leading to the breakthrough, I've honestly never seen it done before...

- John


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## msholit (Nov 17, 2010)

...well it all started when i was working in Thailand and fiending to try flat bands, none were around so i had to improvise







, i was trying to take out field rats. This was about a 6 months ago, so im sorry to say i have no pics...

i used rocks about the size of a big grape and it was tight and snappy, no thud like regular tubes, retraction was much faster and the rock hit harder, faster compared to the original tube.

Thera band silver tubing is on the way, I want to see if the draw will be lighter after slicing, but since its much thicker than regular tubing, not sure if it will have the same affect.

i guess you could call it a ' flute' band ?


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Many years ago here in Oz, speer gun rubber was the only decent rubber available.

So we used to get it in 10 or 12 mm OD with 8 to 10 mm ID, and slice it into 2, 3 or 4 slices depending on the strength we wanted.

This was probably my favourite rubber until I discovered Dams or 'Female Condoms' which were large flat sheets of pure latex.


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## HOE (Nov 13, 2010)

http://www.melchiormenzel.de/pictures/photos_slingshots/photo_slingshot_dave1.jpg
http://www.melchiormenzel.de/pictures/photos_slingshots/photo_slingshot_dave3.jpg
http://www.melchiormenzel.de/pictures/photos_slingshots/photo_slingshot_dave2.jpg

http://www.melchiormenzel.de/


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## msholit (Nov 17, 2010)

Hrawk said:


> Many years ago here in Oz, speer gun rubber was the only decent rubber available.
> 
> So we used to get it in 10 or 12 mm OD with 8 to 10 mm ID, and slice it into 2, 3 or 4 slices depending on the strength we wanted.
> 
> This was probably my favorite rubber until I discovered Dams or 'Female Condoms' which were large flat sheets of pure latex.


i tried motorcycle inner tubes before but they don't really like to stretch, behave rather strangely come to think of it.

im just sitting here wondering how you discovered the Dams, by 'surprise' maybe. .. ?


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Some day I will have a go at making me a classic Shanghai with that sliced speargun tubing..


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## Chepo69 (May 1, 2010)

I had been tempted to do so by the difficulty to find here in my town flat bands, now with what you described does not it take longer to test. which method you used to cut a uniform?


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## dragonmaster (Dec 24, 2009)

you could try deflating the tubs also.don't know what the performance would be but think it was in a post awhile back.


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## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

I've seen it before, but I don't see why it should be a substantial improvement.


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

msholit said:


> Many years ago here in Oz, speer gun rubber was the only decent rubber available.
> 
> So we used to get it in 10 or 12 mm OD with 8 to 10 mm ID, and slice it into 2, 3 or 4 slices depending on the strength we wanted.
> 
> This was probably my favorite rubber until I discovered Dams or 'Female Condoms' which were large flat sheets of pure latex.


i tried motorcycle inner tubes before but they don't really like to stretch, behave rather strangely come to think of it.

im just sitting here wondering how you discovered the Dams, by 'surprise' maybe. .. ?








[/quote]

Hehehehe, It's a long story, and I think we need to keep things 'PG' rated on here.

PM me if you really want to know


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## Gandolphin (Jun 28, 2010)

i just tried it, it's not accurate at all, maybe i'm doing something wrong...


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## M.J (Nov 1, 2010)

msholit said:


> Been lurking on this forum for a while so decided to make a first post, i see there's a bit of controversy over flat bands and tubes. So i'm wondering why i never read anything about slicing a tube down the middle and making it a flat band.
> 
> I've done this a while back and the result was a faster band with more force, requiring MUCH less draw strength.
> 
> ...


I gotta tell you, I like it! I tried this with a heavy pull tube I had and I was really suprised by the results. This tube was too heavy for me before I cut it. I did like you said and started the slit about half an inch behind the pouch on the bottom of the tube. I attached it over-the-top style on my Trumark FS1 with zip ties on the front of the posts. 
Back to back comparisons with a standard pull trumark tube resulted in much better accuracy and what felt like more speed. I reliably hit the center of my target from 25ft where before I couldn't reliably hit anywhere and from about 60ft I couldn't hit my catch box with the regular tubes and could hit the target pretty reliably with the slit-tube setup.
The only problem I had was with some rediculous hand slap! Maybe this is an OTT issue as I've only shot with post mount tubes before.
Now I really want to try an over-the-top flatband!


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## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

I have done this and they dont work well and they do not lay flat anyway. Performance does suffer and its too much trouble.


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## Dr J (Apr 22, 2013)

I have asked about this on another post. I found the bands easier to draw which made the SS easier to hold and I hit the target with a good wallop. everyone skirts around how they go about cutting the tubes evenly Lots of theories nothing shown I am like Thomas, show me!


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## Stonepark (Mar 24, 2011)

Handslap is due to too light weight ammo, now you are using tubes at full stretch and speed.


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## Jeff Lazerface (May 7, 2013)

having multiple setups makes things real easy a 10"x1" is way differant than 9"x1", I didnt really understand until i could test them side by side, and dude, u can test a band with a fork straight off the tree with the bark still on it, or a work in progress


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