Band Blaster - The 7 Shot 3D Printed Rubber Band Gun

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Features:

7 round semi-automatic
Realistic slide movement
Front and rear sights built in
Easy to reload
Safe for kids (No removable parts, low velocity rubber bands)
Prints in under 5 hours (3 Colour)
Ingenious reloading design
Very strong robust print
Sounds like a real gun
Easy to assemble
Only 1 moving part
Lost bullets are not an issue, just buy another pack of cheap elastic bands!

Printing:

The main body requires support. This should be fairly dense support with an X/y gap of at least 0.4mm - This will allow you to get around the sides of the support in order to remove it cleanly.

The slides should be printed with the text facing down. You can then add a filament change at the layer that the text is bridged, in order to change the colour of the text.

Assembly:

Insert either slide into the main body
Insert the trigger ensuring the holes line up with the holes in the slide
Screw in 2 screws until the head is flush with the surface of the slide
Insert the other slide
Insert the last 2 screws
Tip: If the slide doesn't move freely after assembly, check that both sides are perfectly aligned with each other. Any miss alignment here can mess up the tolerances and can cause a sticky action.

You could also sand the contact surfaces to decrease the amount of friction even further. I haven't needed to do this myself though.

Screws:

4x 4mm-5mm diameter countersunk screws or whatever you have in your toolbox as long as they fit! :)

You can use smaller diameter/longer screws as the threads will meet and interlock in the middle, so the only important thing is that the heads don't protrude in to the path of the rubber bands.

Loading:

Hook the first band on the tip of the barrel

Stretch and locate it on the lowest groove to the rear of the main body

Continue this one band at a time until you reach the last groove

Ensure all bands are seated correctly with a clear gap between each groove

The Band Blaster is now ready to fire!

Firing:

For the action to work properly the slide needs to move fully back and fully forward. This is so the rubber bands can fully engage and climb up the ladder of teeth.

After giving this to my kids to play with for a few hours (Age 4,6,7) they were struggling to fully pull back the trigger with all 7 bands loaded. This then messes up the order of the bands and jams the blaster. This shouldn't be an issue for anyone over the age of around 12 but if you do find it a problem for your kids, then you can simply use 3 or 4 bands to relieve some pressure off the trigger.

Rubber Bands:

You can use a wide range of rubber bands for this blaster, as long as they're all the same size.

Here's a link to the size that i have been testing with:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elastic-Coloured-Natural-Supplies-Industrial/dp/B09XK86MP3/ref=asc_df_B09XK86MP3/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=600130594253&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1019593517136286046&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046477&hvtargid=pla-1672121535760&mcid=76260e2f1e1034928c867a8455b84ff5&th=1

These are not a fail safe though as I've found that even different coloured bands of the same size can have widely different strengths. I would suggest getting a large bag of mixed sizes to really dial in the right tension for your specific blaster.

Tip: If you use your own bands and find that the action is stiff or not working properly, the bands are most likely too tight.

I really hope you like this design! - It has taken a fair bit of work to get a super reliable, accurate, easy to print, fun for all the family rubber band blaster, and I personally can't stop playing with it!

Please like the model and review your experience - It helps a lot! :)

Also, post pictures of your makes! - I'd really like to see some different funky colours of this design! :P