Crossbow (my First Instructable!)

Hi everybody! Welcome to my first instructable! Today we'll be building a cheap, easy and oh so POWERFUL hand-held crossbow. I apologise in advance if you find the pictures a bit poor but my lil sister is away on a school trip and took my 7.1 megapixel camera with her. In my future projects I will
use it to provide y'all with hi-res pics of the project. I hope I make a good first impression... here goes:

Nothing special, really.
-A lot of kebap skewers
-A lot of rubber bands
-Cutters
-1x thin walled metal tube thingy appox 0.5 cm in diameter (I used an old rc antenna shaft)
-Adhesive tape(optional)
-A file(I used 3 of them)(optional)
-Sandpaper(optional)
-You might also need some carpentry glue(optional)

Take 3 skewers and cut off the tips as shown. Then repeat with 3 more skewers.

When you're done, proceed to step 3,

Take 1 skewer and cut off the tip. Then you can use a file to make 2 little notches on each end of the stick for the rubber band to grab on and stay in place as you stretch it backwards.Cut the rubber band and secure with multiple knots on each side

NOTE: Make sure not to leave the rubber band too stretched when making the last knot. This will allow it to be pulled back far enough without breaking the skewer. Don't make it too loose either, as this will reduce your crossbow's power.

Do as shown and then secure one end with rubber bands.

Simple as pie.Place metal tube as shown below and secure in place with rubber bands.

You might find this one a bit complicated. Trust me though, it's as easy as the previous steps.

Take a skewer and cut a portion out of it approx 4 in (Imperial) or 10cm (Metric).

Repeat until you get three sticks with roughly the same lenght. NOTE: If you don't want to use sandpaper later, make sure to cut them EXACTLY the same lenght.

Now make three more...

Repeat once...

Twice...

Thricefold ...

OK that'll do!

HINT: You might want to put in some glue to keep the triads together, that'll make your life a lot easier in the steps to come.You can also use some sort of duct tape like in step 1.

Now arrange the triads together as shown below. Now you see why I sugested using tape or glue to secure the sticks previously.

After you arrange them as in the picture, secure with rubber bands.

Take three more skewers and cut them at about 4in (10 cm) too.

Repeat but this time DON'T cut off the tips. Measure from the tip and cut at the same dimensions.

Place everything as shown. Make sure to leave space between the tips and the rest of the handle.
Secure with more rubber bands.

Now you might have noticed that the botttom of the handle looks like a war zone. So does the rest of our makeshift crossbow, but that's not fixable.If you want to make your creation look better, you can rub the bottom of the handle FRANTICALLY ON THE SAND PAPER to get rid of anomalies.

You're almost done!

Just take your complete handle(double-check you've done it properly) and install it to the rest of the body as in the photo. Secure with rubber bands but MAKE SURE to maintain a gap between the tips of the 2 sticks and the rest of the handle. To do this, just place the rubber band as shown.

For the arrow, just take a skewer and make a little notch in the bottom (a file is usefl here). Without it, the rubber band will just slip and shoot past the arrow .

Anyone can figure this one out... just do as in the pictures.

Just find a target (paper,boxes,foam), pull back the handle...

BOOM! Target down!

DISCLAIMER: I don't take responsibility for any kind of damage caused by this device. This instructable is adressed to considerate individuals who want to learn and have fun through productivity. Always use caution when handling this crossbow! Only use paper, cardboard or foam targets. For safety, cut off the tips of your arrows.

PLZZZ LEAVE COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS IM A NEWBIE

Be well at all times
& thanks for reading. ;-)