Wanting to make/design a sort of automatic crossbow. Is the general idea possible?
Very random idea and I don't know if my idea is even possible (the way I'm describing it), but hey, we'll see.
Okay so my friend has power tools (and I know how to use 'em), and I'm bored so I wanted to make something, though a crossbow would be cool, then I thought, "what's even cooler?", so then I thought, in proper fashion, machine-gun crossbow, so here's my idea. And a disclaimer that will probably be obvious, I'm not exactly experienced, or any kind of designer lol.
A crossbow with a circular, revolving chamber in the for the bolts. The bolts are loaded into the chamber, as many as it could be made for (probably some small homemade ones, maybe like 5 in the chamber). The crossbow uses the tension stored in the chamber by rotating it with a lever/crank or something with a string attached. Like a wind-up toy. There is also another string, the one that actually launches the bolts, that is attached to the revolving chamber in a way that it can pop into place back and forth quickly as it rotates. Upon releasing it via something like a trigger mechanism on the handle, the chamber rotates quickly, and as the bolts are in line with the tip, the chamber, as it spins, moves the launching string attached to it in and out of place, shooting them in rapid succession.
EDIT: Also unsure whether or not this falls under rule 4?
Posted May 13, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC
I can't follow your description, but crossbows with magazines have been made.
edit: And here's a fun one (although not a true crossbow it would be trivial to adapt this concept to a true crossbow)... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbKGjRoSofA
Ah The Slingshot channel, a channel everyone can support and enjoy.
The one in the video is actually fairly close to what I had in mind, except instead of using a drill to spin the gear (and the bolts are loaded differently), using some kind of tension based method of spinning in if you follow me, similarly to a wind up toy, so like a small crank or something idk, and a trigger releases it.