Now this would make for an awesome toy at parties

Oct 27, 2014 10:58 GMT  ·  By

We all probably know the fun that can be had in a paintball game, regardless of how macabre true firefights are. However, paintball guns and their ammo aren’t that cheap, and not every town or village has a range nearby where you can rent a few in order to have fun.

Still, some people would prefer to be able to have some type of mock firefight during a party or other kind of get-together.

If you're the sort of man or woman who feels that way, DIY archer and Thingiverse user Steven Thone may have just the thing for you.

In the attached picture gallery is a crossbow small enough to hold with a single hand. Also, it's guaranteed to not cause any injury (well, not bad ones) even if you shoot someone in the eye.

Why? It's not so much because of the size of the crossbow but the kind of ammo it's designed to shoot once you pull the trigger.

The crossbow that fires Q-Tips

You know those little sticks that so many people use to clean their ears of wax in violation of pretty much every advice from otolaryngologists? Yeah, those are the arrows, or bolts, that the new single-hand crossbow uses.

Buyable at any general or department store, the Q-Tips are pretty cheap and come in large packs or boxes for less than a buck.

The crossbow itself is interesting for another reason though: it can be 3D printed on any consumer 3D printer, though you'll have to figure out yourself how to polish the finished product. Every 3D printer leaves ridges or wrinkles on the finished product, due to how the material is placed in layers.

Anyway, the handheld crossbow is manipulated like a gun and only needs a few parts that can't be 3D printed: a 2/56″ x 1/2″ screw that holds the trigger in place and metal hair clips for the bow.

The range of the crossbow is 20 feet / 6 meters, enough for a backyard armed engagement or a confrontation across the rooms of a home. However, the range can be modified if you use different hair clips, according to Thone.

Availability

Thone doesn't have plans to sell his invention, but that's the whole point of 3D printing: to make it yourself. The plans have been posted on Thingiverse, so you can head on there and download them if you own a 3D printer of your own or if there's a 3D printing service nearby.

3D printed crossbow (3 Images)

3D printed crossbow
3D printed crossbow3D printed crossbow
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