Mini crossbow for NERF dart

youmagine

After numerous iterations of thoughts, plans and models, I finally started designing this mini crossbow for the #3dpgnerf4um2 competition, hosted by 3D Printing group of Facebook. I wanted to accomplish three specific things with this project: Make some that is kid friendly and can be used as a toy Make it as simple and fun to build as possible Use little to no parts apart from the printed ones And I ended up designing this mini crossbow. A simple crossbow would be truly a boring thing to design or make so I wanted to add a bit of extra to it. So I ended up designing a mini crossbow that have manual forward/backward motion via four wheels, left/right and up/down via manual gears. This models put a check mark next to all the three things that I planned on incorporating: it is kid friendly (and can be very colorful!), it is simple, yet fun to build (you will see!) and it uses only a regular rubber band (and the NERF dart; couldn’t do anything about it). A quick rundown of the model is given below: https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8056/29219078343_a65cc7ab1b_b.jpg Despite looking very simple (which was one of the goals), the model had to go through quite a few iterations before I felt like it’s ready to be entered for the competition. The following picture is in memory of those parts who helped prototyping the project; you parts are awesome! Couldn’t have done it without the sacrifice from you parts :) https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8089/29809819466_c75967b9f9_b.jpg I haven’t been 3D printing for that long, probably for few months until now and since this is my first 3D printed functional model, I became very excited once it was working. Since I couldn’t find anyone to ask for their opinion on how it is, I resorted to some things that I already have: https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8184/29219088193_96ea817594_b.jpg Credit: Loubie @ Thingiverse https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8521/29809829206_726bbf9b55_b.jpg Credit: 3DBenchy https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8094/29809826966_6fb71e8351_b.jpg Credit: MorenaP @ Thingiverse https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8051/29732199842_0c583a568d_b.jpg Credit: SpierceTech @ Thingiverse https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5130/29219098943_48d3c64388_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8033/29732194392_c999d4b9ff_b.jpg