How to Make a Paper Crossbow

I noticed that there was no decent tutorial out there for making a paper crossbow (or a paper gun that shoots) that didn't utilize rubber bands. This is what I came up with as a result. The crossbow is actually quite durable in design and should stand up to use for for a very long time so long as it doesn't get wet. Hopefully a good deal of office boredom can be solved with this.

The working mechanism for this crossbow is in the arms made of rolled paper and supported by tape. Typically a bent tube of rolled paper would tear when bent, but a layer of tape seems to distribute the load evenly enough to not only prevent the paper from tearing, but also give it a strong and fast spring action when released. This allows for a rigid bow string to be used which utilizes the energy in the arms to propel the projectile - Rather than most toy crossbows which use rigid arms and an elastic band which propels the bolt more like a slingshot than a crossbow.

This crossbow can throw a pencil or pen a good 100 feet. A possible modification for even more power might be to make two arms on each side that the bow string would tie together at the tips. Having double arms is about the only way to go about adding more power because adding much more paper to the first set will only result in them tearing or being completely rigid. Similar to how you can only fold a piece of paper so many times.

Have fun! Don't take an arrow to the knee.

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Closed Caption:

in this video I'll be showing how to
make a paper crossbow out of only the
material shown here
the first thing we're going to do is
make our bow arms to start doing that
I'm going to take four sheets of paper
and fold them in half very carefully
lengthwise
now i'm going to unfold these sheets of
paper and we're going to cut along this
scene
now i'm going to take these four strips
that i've just created and roll them
very tightly around a pencil
this tube should now be tape so that it
will not unroll
now i'm going to do the exact same thing
to these other four sheets
the easiest way to start the roll of
paper is to take an extra wide flat like
that and fold it down underneath the
pencil and the role start much easier
that way
yeah
now the next thing we're going to do is
measure one and a half inches off of
each end of one of our popsicle sticks
and then put a mark
at this point we will also put a mark
one and a half inches in on one end of
both of our tubes
a popsicle stick should now be taken and
inserted up to the first mark into one
of our tubes on the side with the mark
that we've put in the tube also when
it's right there
i'm going to go ahead and break it off
and use the other end to go into our
other tube
now the other two popsicle sticks that I
have can be inserted into the opposite
ends of the tubes from where we just
inserted the first popsicle stick
I also i'm going to insert the 90
degrees from what the first popsicle
stick was inserted at
now the last thing we need to do to
these arms before we bend them is to
give them some support so they're not
going to tear to do that I'm going to
take three strips of tape and lay them
out lengthwise just on either end of
where i made this mark about that far
and here is my third
now with those three strips added i'm
going to put a few parallel wraps of
tape around just to secure them and
that's it this arm is ready
i'm going to go ahead and repeat the
process on the second arm
these arms are now ready to be bent just
passed this mark and you can now test
them to see how much spring you're going
to get out of them
I don't like how this looks so i'm going
to go ahead and add another strip of
tape around there
it's now time to roll the main body of
the crossbow that's this paper tube that
goes along right here for this i'm going
to take five sheets of paper
line them up very straight and roll them
around our pencil again it's going to be
much easier to roll the paper if you
place the pencil somewhere about in
there lay a flap of the paper over it
and then fold that flap underneath to
start the role
I'll now just take this tube in several
places so that it won't enroll now we
can go ahead and attach the bow arms to
this tube to start that what i'm going
to do is just pinch the end of this long
tube slightly now on either side of this
we can go ahead and take our arms on
just like that it's going to be easiest
to start with one arm and then align the
other
it's going to be important that these
are held on tightly and with a lot of
tape
now what I'm going to do is take a
length of very strong twine and tie a
bowline knot into one end there are many
tutorials online about how to tie a
bowline knots so i'm not going to go
into detail about that here i will then
take the bowline knot and pass the end
of the string through it to create a
slip knot now this not i'm now going to
place over the end of one side of our
bow arm i'll go ahead and tighten that
down
now this should be taped in place so it
does not slide around
now i'm going to pull the string tight
to the end of the other armed and cut it
off just an inch or so past
I'll now also tie a bowline into the end
of this side of the line and put it over
the other arm
at this point we're going to need to
tighten the arms in order to slip this
over the end
I can now also take the knot down on
this arm
now the next thing I'm going to need to
do is to pull this line back until it
about makes the shape of a square with
the arms
somewhere about right in there I'll now
put a mark with a pencil into this tube
now with a sharp object such as this
I'm going to poke a hole through the top
of this tube right about where the mark
is at and continue right through the
bottom of the tube be extremely careful
not to cut yourself as you poke through
the tube now the whole I've made into
the bottom of this tube i need to widen
out just a little bit this way i'll go
ahead and bring this whole about to hear
now you can see how I poked all the way
through and this hole on the bottom is
now widened out enough that I can get a
little bit of movement
now what I'm going to do is take the end
of a popsicle stick and split it just
about down the middle
I'll go ahead and do that with a pair of
scissors now this is going to be our
trigger
what I'm going to do is insert it
through this hole just like that
now what were left with is this right
here now to test this out before we go
any further we can go ahead and pull
this bow string back and put it right
onto the end of our trigger there you
can see it holds it quite nicely
alright so the only thing we have left
to do to this crossbow is to add the
little support rails on the sides here
that are going to support our arrow and
a little tube up front that are going to
hold it
so what I'm going to do is take a single
sheet of paper and again just folded in
half down the middle
i will now again go ahead and cut right
down this fold
now each of these strips of paper I'm
going to roll around our pencil and
those are going to create our rails
I'll go ahead and take a piece of tape
told this to be together
now these two tubes can be flattened out
all the way down the length and i'm just
going to take them from back here behind
the trigger
so that they sit just about like that
right there
all right I've got my rear guides
installed now all i need to do is roll a
narrow strip of paper to make a tube
which the front end of the pencils are
going to sit in now before i take this
too closed
I'm going to let it expand slightly so
that our pencils are sure to float
freely in there
now we'll go ahead and take this shot
this small tube can now be mounted to
the front of the crossbow write about in
there now with both the front and rear
guards installed all you need to do is
find a pencil
remove the eraser the metal part because
that will get caught on the front guide
then all you need to do is cock your
crossbow put it right back on to that
trigger there
put your pencil into the front sight and
put it right on those rear guards just
like that and it's ready to fire