Make your own quad-barrelled rubber-band Gatling gun

It might take longer than it seems, but it's worth it.
Christopher McFadden

If the video player is not working, you can watch the video from this alternative link.

Want to take your rubberband battling to the next level? Then stop messing around with your fingers, and make a power-drill-powered quad barrelled rubberband Gatling gun!

Here's how. 

diy quad rubberband gun complete
Source: Newsflare

As you can imagine, you'll need some tools and materials before you get started.

Materials and gear needed

  • Wood
  • Wooden rods/poles
  • A lot of elastic bands
  • Plastic bottle caps
  • Pencil
  • Spraypaints
  • Metal ruler
  • Jigsaw
  • Hot glue gun 
  • Angle miter
  • Miniature power drill
  • Pair of compasses

With all your gear in hand, it is time to get on with this great little build.

Step 1: Make the barrels

The first step is to take our sheet of wood, metal ruler, pair of compasses, and a pen or pencil. Mark out two bisecting lines, and then draw out a circle 15/21ths of an inch (1.2 cm) in radius.

With that done, mark out another circle 2 and 61/64 inches (7.5 cm) in a radius around the first to make a ring shape. 

diy rubberband machine gun rings
Source: Newsflare

With that done, mark out another set of circles around the inner and inside the outer circles to make a sort of bullseye-looking set of rings. Next, draw another two lines at each 45-degree angle around the circle from the first two lines. 

Mark out their position on the outer ring circumference, and bracket it with two short lines, as shown below. 

diy rubberband machine gun points
Source: Newsflare

With that done, mark out another series of lines within the circles to mark the positions and shape of the main supporting spokes of what will become the main barrels of the machinegun. 

Next, take your jigsaw, and cut out the shape you've just created as faithfully as possible. Rinse and repeat to make all eight of the shapes needed. 

They should look like a series of wooden snowflake-like structures. 

diy rubberband machine gun spokes
Source: Newsflare

With that done, sketch and cut out the main barrel mounting piece of the gun as well. You will also need to make sixty-four toothed rails for each of the eight points of each barrel to hold the rubber band ammunition. 

diy rubberband machine gun parts
Source: Newsflare

Step 2: Assemble the barrels

The next step is to take your wooden poles and cut them to shape for the barrels. Place the pole or rod into your angle miter. 

Cut the rods directly across at 90-degrees. You'll need for of these. Also cut a short length of plastic tubing too. 

With that done, make a series of wooden rings and other parts to complete the main gun structure. Watch the video for more information on this part as no dimensions are provided. 

diy rubberband machine gun rails
Source: Newsflare

With that done, take one of your wooden cylinders, and thread two of the snowflake barrel parts along with at either end. Next, take your hot glue gun, and begin to glue eight of the rails to the rail mounts on each arm of the snowflakes. 

Rinse and repeat for all four barrels of the gun. Ensure the barrel can freely spin around their wooden axles - much like a Gatling gun. 

Step 3: Paint the parts

Next, take the main barrel mounting piece, and glue the wooden barrel axles in place as needed.

diy quad rubberband gun barrels mounts
Source: Newsflare

With that done, glue the other wooden parts needed to the rear of the barrel mounting plate as shown below. 

With that done, take your spray paint, and paint all the wooden parts as needed. Choose whichever color you'd like, but black works very well. 

diy rubberband machine gun paint
Source: Newsflare

Step 3: Assemble the weapon

Once the paint is dry, add the small wooden washers to each barrel mount, and then main gun barrels as needed. Next, add another wooden washer to the barrel axles to hold the rotating barrels in place. 

With that done, glue the main handle to the topmost wooden pole of the barrel mount as needed.

diy quad rubberband gun handle
Source: Newsflare

With that done, take your small power drill. This will be sacrificed to power the gun. With your length of plastic tube, insert a large enough drill bit to stick firmly within it. 

Fit the other end of the drill bit into the power drill chuck as needed. 

diy rubberband machine gun drill
Source: Newsflare

With that done, insert the power drill into its mounting point on the barrel mounting place, and secure it in place with more lengths of wood as shown below. 

diy quad machine gun drill
Source: Newsflare

Step 5: Load the weapon

With that done, take a series of rubber bands and load the rails of each barrel of the gun as needed. Before you do that, however, ensure you create the trigger mechanism as shown below. 

diy quad machine gun load
Source: Newsflare

Attach the other free end of the triggers to the main drill barrel using some more elastic bands too. When the drill is activated, it will pull the trigger strings, and release each elastic band in turn. 

diy quad machine gun triggers
Source: Newsflare

Once all barrels are loaded, your quad-barrelled rubberband Gatling gun is ready to take the pain to your enemies! Happy hunting. 

If you enjoyed this build you might enjoy making another non-lethal, yet incredibly fun gun

Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
message circleSHOW COMMENT (1)chevron
Job Board