HotWheels Launcher on Steroids

Description

This launcher is vaguely inspired by https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2253033 It is meant to do the same thing = launch Hot Wheels cars - however it is designed from scratch bringing some pros but also cons to the design - so it is not meant as successor but rather an alternative - depending on your needs and preferences both designs can deliver up to your expectations. Pros of the new design: - it is a lot more robust and sturdier. My kids had a lot of fun with the original design however very soon broke some part of it coming back to daddy asking to re-print the failed component. After few attempts, I gave up and quickly sketched this version made to resist forces the little ones can develop. - the new design maintains possibility to scale the launching force / speed by adding more rubber bands however now the capacity is greatly increased. It can go beyond something the kids can even handle but proportionally to that the speed may go up so much that it may become even dangerous. So handle with care and use at your own risk! - when priming the shaft / piston it automatically locks in position, so one doesn't need to take care of priming and locking in position at the same time. It is an advantage from my point of view but it is to be recognized that the original design trains kid's dexterity to some extent while the new is missing this aspect. - rather than extending the ramp to interface the connected track out from the main body the new design sports a hollow so that the original HotWheels track joint may be used instead. This was exactly one of the frequently broken part as kids joggled the launcher around in the heat of the game thus joint quickly broke off. The HotWheels original track joint is a lot more tough and resilient than any printed part especially given the limitations of its size (simply can't be made bigger - it wouldn't fit in) - there is a short barrel in the new design and the main body is longer which stabilizes the car better especially in vertical axis. When increasing the launching power with the original design the cars showed a tendency to roll over the piston front or shoot sideways. But again - the original behavior may be viewed as part of fun (kids need to align the car well). Moreover - it is also safety feature since it limits the launching speed. As was hinted above - speed may scale up dramatically with the new design and you need to watch after your kids so that they are not using it in any dangerous way. Cons of the design: - while the massive built of the new design brings robustness and also momentum (=action and reaction) it is BIG and thus takes long time to print and requires considerably more material than the original design. It also prints with supports (no big deal for me however some, I understand, run away from anything that actually requires supports). It uses full potential of my printer (=25cm wide) thus will not print on some smaller machines. - the barrel at the front is good for stabilizing the cars but in order to deliver on this intention the size of it is limited thus some cars won't fit in. But vast majority should. Again - no issue for me - we have plenty of cars that fit in nicely. PRINTING - I print the main body and shaft (piston) separately from each other and the brake and trigger together. The main body took approx. 12 hours to print, the shaft was less then 4 and brake and trigger is almost negligible from that perspective - the shaft and trigger is printed upside down - supports needed in minimum for the inside part of the main body. The guide rails of the Main body are questionable (I did print those with supports and didn't experiment with any other settings) - printed from PETG but any material will probably do ASSEMBLY - 4 parts are to be printed: Main body, Shaft (piston), Trigger and Brake and you need some (or plenty :)) rubber bands on top. Fitting those together is self-explanatory, perhaps the Brake needs little explanation: - the brake is dragged upwards by two rubber bands (held by the same bar as the main "shooting" rubber bands). It slides into the slot at the beginning of the shaft while automatically locking it in place when fully primed. I recommend fixing the rubber band in place on the bar and then sliding a thin wire through the slit from the bottom of the Main body up, through the rubber band and down again. Pulling the wire out will bring the rubber band out at the bottom of the Main body and will enable fixing it around the Brake body. Do it twice (one time on each side) and you have the Brake in place waiting for the Shaft to be primed. - the Trigger easily slides in and helps to push the Brake down in order to install the Shaft (done once) and then releasing the Shaft repeatedly as is its main function / purpose. As the rubber bands I used were too strong and were "shooting" the Trigger out from the Main body upon successful priming I added a slot around the Trigger and the Main body to wrap one rubber band around keeping the trigger in place. Since the Brake is pulled up with two rubber bands this "keep-Trigger-in-place" rubber band is easily overpowered. It may add some friction to the Shaft moving which can however be compensated by adding more "shooting" rubber bands. - adding the "shooting" rubber bands is easy: fix around the bar on the Main body and slide the band through the narrow slit at the bottom of the Shaft. The slit is by purpose designed as quite narrow - the rubber bands will not make their way out unintentionally unless forced. It will swallow only certain size of the rubber bands - no issue with that: simply use more of them if more power is needed. - the hollow for track joint is designed tight for purpose: once plugged in it stays in (and is meant to stay in). Disconnect from the rest of the track on the opposite side leaving the joint in the Main body. This thing is designed to last and deliver fun over extended period of time. So have fun, make sure everybody around is safe, use at your own risk and enjoy the massive velocity it can deliver to the HotWheels cars! Comments and suggestions welcome!

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