Trash to Treasure DIY Dart (for Dart Games)

If you've lost a single dart for a dart board game, or for something else, you may buy a new one, OR make your own! This project shows you how to make a dart out of material you may just throw away normally. Also, it is easy to use different materials from what are used in this project as alternatives, or possibly even better options.

• plastic straw
• 4-5" long metal nail
• tape
• soda can
• An electric grinder and/or material that can grind metal
• cereal box

To begin the most important part of the dart, take your metal nail and use an electric grinder, or grind it by hand so you can get a sharper tip. You can shape this tip however you want, and the most optimal shape for a dart board is thin, but make sure that you don't sharpen it past 1/2" long.

Get your straw and pen. Cut the straw to be 2 1/2" long. At the end of the straw, draw 3 to 4 one inch long lines to mark where the feathers will go.

Now take your pen and remove the ink container, make sure the ink container is empty before cutting the container. We are using this ink container because it is strong plastic, and we typically have many used pens that no longer work. Cut the ink container to be approximately 2 3/4" long, make sure nothing is covering either side.

The easiest way to do this is to place the two parts where they would be on the dart. Drop the two through the nail, making sure the straw is on top. Now that the two are placed correctly, connect them with tape. You can take the now connected tubes off of the nail.

On your chosen cereal box, draw a rectangle that is 1" tall and 1/2" wide. From there, make a line parallel to the top of the box that is 3/8" down. Now that you have made this shape, connect the two sides with diagonal lines. Now cut out only the triangle shape that was made so that you get the correct sized dart feather. Repeat this process 3 to 4 times depending on how many lines you put on your straw.

To attach the feathers to the dart, simply either tape the darts, or glue them onto the lines that are on your straw. If you did it right there should be 3 to 4 evenly distributed triangles all around your tubing.

This soda can will be used to connect the upper part of the dart to the nail.

WARNING: Soda cans have sharp edges when cut so you may want to wear gloves to avoid being cut.

To begin, cut out a 1 1/2" by 1" part of the can. Once you have successfully done this, measure a line parallel to the long side that is 3/4" long. Begin cutting this length until you have 7 taperred parts of the can piece. Then proceed to cut every other line until you have 4 of them.

Take the piece and form it into a tube shape, making sure that it wraps all the way around the dart. Now tape the non-cut sides together to keep it on the dart. After you have done that, press the cut parts of the can down onto the nail so that you get a more dipped look at the end. tape these 4 strands together.

Now that you have assembled the dart into position, you can glue it to keep the nail within the tubing. Simply place glue on the top part of the end of the nail and push it into the straw until it is snug in place. Wait for it to try and it's as good as done!