For practical use or just for fun! This device made with PVC pipe and a clothes hanger will launch about thirty feet.
39
COAT HANGER GRAPPLING GUN
SAFETY KEY:
+ Sharp objects
SKILL LEVEL:
EASY
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
APPROXIMATE TIME:
30 minutes
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
+ ½-inch and ¾ -inch PVC pipe
+ Wire clothes hanger
+ Nylon string
+ Rubber surgical tubing
+ Wooden dowel
+ Electrical tape or duct tape
+ Baling wire
+ Wire cutters
+ PVC glue
+ Plastic cone from an empty spool of thread
LET’S BEGIN
BUILDING YOUR GRAPPLING HOOK
1. Cut your wooden dowel to about one foot in length. Place aside.
2. Straighten out your wire hanger. Using the wire cutters, clip off the top hanger just below the metal twist. Now straighten out the wire into a long piece.
SHAPE IT!
1. We’re making a three-prong hook. First, bend about a six-inch, 45-degree reserve on one end. Then start bending the remaining wire into a hook, bending out and in until you have three spikes.
2. Take the remaining wire and bend it down to meet with the first reserve.
PRO TIP: Even them up by cutting any excess.
3. Wrap rubber baling wire around the structure to shore up the piece. Once that is done, bend the wire to create your hooks.
4. Take the wooden dowel and sand it down to get a tapered point.
5. The wedge will fit between the two lower bent wires. Secure with more baling wire, then wrap in electrical tape.
BUILDING YOUR LAUNCHER
1. Cut three inches of ½-inch PVC pipe.
2. Cut eighteen inches of ¾ inch PVC pipe.
3. The ½-inch pipe is going to sit on one end of the ¾-inch pipe. To make a flat, smooth connection, sand down one side of each pipe so they sit flat against each other.
4. Use PVC glue on the smooth surfaces and place together. To secure the pieces you may also want to use duct tape.
5. Cut one foot of surgical tubing (this will be used to launch the grappling hook).
6. Loop the tubing behind the ½-inch support piece and attach the two open ends to the ¾-inch PVC pipe with a zip tie.
7. For the trigger mechanism, cut a hook from a piece of wood. Drill a small hole in the middle of the piece. Drill a hole about four inches from the other end of the PVC pipe. Thread wire from the hanger through the trigger hole and the PVC pipe so the trigger rests on top of the pipe. Twist the wire to secure.
8. Cut into the end of the grappling hook so the trigger has something to grab on to.
9. Build out the launcher so it rests comfortably to your body. Use a T-connector on one end and cut another five-inch piece and insert it onto the bottom. Add an elbow piece.
10. Cut another ten-inch piece and insert that onto the elbow piece.
11. Obtain a hollow plastic cone from a spool of thread. Place it on the end of the ten-inch piece. Drill a hole in the cone and the PVC pipe and use a dulled nail to connect the two.
12. Build out the rest of the gun with another ten-inch pipe secured in the other T-connector end followed by another elbow piece and a short five-inch piece coming down from there, and rounded out by another elbow piece.
13. Measure out thirty-five feet of nylon string. Attach one end with tape to the grappling hook.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL: Make sure not to cover the trigger notch!
14. Drill another hole in the plastic cone, thread the other end of the string through it, and knot it off.
15. Wrap all the string around the cone.
16. Feed the hook through the ½-inch pipe, attach it to the trigger, release the trigger, and watch the hook soar.
PRO TIP: Adjust your rubber tubing to get the best possible launch.
FUN FACT: Grappling hooks are a tool used by combat engineers. After launching the hook forward they set off trip wires by pulling the hook back.
It may not be small enough to fit on a small table, but it is definitely a noteworthy weapon to add to your arsenal of homemade weaponry!