Scootertrash
07-06-2014, 08:16 AM
Not my story, copied from another forum. I figgered you guys would get a kick outta this
Ronnie was in office.
I helped a buddy (we were both welders) swap a Dana 70 and one-ton spring pack under his J20 pickup. Left over were the stock springs.
If you're any kind of welder, you see stuff others would consider junk, and see the future instead. That future ain't always a perfect one.
Hence (and further fueled by a modicum of Lucky Lager), the crossbow idea. That top spring was drilled for the axle mount, right in the middle...perfect. Plenty of 1/4" square tube around, some braided stainless aircraft cable not doing anything at the time....let's do it.
The bow mount, bolt guide/carriage and frame were easy. Setting up the sear and release - not so much. This much tension apparently demands very smooth, and very hard, mating surfaces, so lotsa flapper wheel and used oil quenching involved. And, more beer. The hours grew late. Turns out a 3/4 ton chain come-along makes a slow, but effective, cocking mechanism. Storm clouds gathered on the horizon...
As chief design engineer/most sober of the two at the time, I decided we'd simply have to make adjustable aiming mounts on the pintle, gimbaled on two axes by the ingenious use of threaded 2" pipe and fittings, with handwheel setscrew locks. This would later prove to be not nearly as brilliant as it seemed at the very drunk time.
If you're shooting a .45/70, no sense in using light bullets, right? If you're gonna be a hammer, be a sledge! A foot or so of #8 rebar, with a conical broadhead of 4140 would make a dandy bolt, we thought. I added some ten-gauge fins for stabilization, properly using 7018 rod as rebar hates brittle welds.
History would be made at daylight.
Best way to avoid hangovers is the classic tossup between not getting drunk to begin with, or not getting sober. Our mission demanded the latter. Off we went to the back forty with several friends who were mightily pissed off at the 0600 call to muster for the new weapon's unveiling and to bring more beer. All were summarily pleased and edified by The Crossbow, though. They even argued to see who got to help lift this 200+ pound f****r out of the truck. It was a monstrosity both lissome in appearance and fearsome in size; it simply oozed the portent of calamitous carnage upon it's target.
That last part was f***in'-A right, as it turned out.
Couldn't get the bolt to really stabilize at the lower-velocity test runs, but it hit pretty close to the spray painted bull on the hay bale at forty or so yards. I felt the need; the need for speed - so I decided to stretch that bow back to the stops.
Turns out that whole Newton's Second Law is pretty prescient after all. When I tripped the release from full-cock (using a cord from about twenty feet away), the forces at hand defeated my stellar elevation/windage adjustment gimbal locks. The whole bow assembly tilted WAY up and WAY left, and the bolt went right where it was directed. Had to be better than a hundred yards, a gracefully ballistic parabolic arc right into the driver's side of my buddy's Toyota pickup bed while he was passed out in the cab. I was sure I'd killed him.
The bolt passed cleanly in, and horribly out, both sides of the bed; continued a bit further and buried itself a couple feet into the ground.
I made a command decision on the spot that The Crossbow would be promptly disassembled, never to see daylight again. Were it to fall into the wrong hands - say, some drunken idiots or such - it would spell doom for us all. I made diamond plate patches for my friend's Toyota, which he thought looked pretty bitchin.
That was on a July 5th about thirty years ago. Don't ask for any designs or plans.
Feel free to add your brew-fueled engineering escapades ;)
Ronnie was in office.
I helped a buddy (we were both welders) swap a Dana 70 and one-ton spring pack under his J20 pickup. Left over were the stock springs.
If you're any kind of welder, you see stuff others would consider junk, and see the future instead. That future ain't always a perfect one.
Hence (and further fueled by a modicum of Lucky Lager), the crossbow idea. That top spring was drilled for the axle mount, right in the middle...perfect. Plenty of 1/4" square tube around, some braided stainless aircraft cable not doing anything at the time....let's do it.
The bow mount, bolt guide/carriage and frame were easy. Setting up the sear and release - not so much. This much tension apparently demands very smooth, and very hard, mating surfaces, so lotsa flapper wheel and used oil quenching involved. And, more beer. The hours grew late. Turns out a 3/4 ton chain come-along makes a slow, but effective, cocking mechanism. Storm clouds gathered on the horizon...
As chief design engineer/most sober of the two at the time, I decided we'd simply have to make adjustable aiming mounts on the pintle, gimbaled on two axes by the ingenious use of threaded 2" pipe and fittings, with handwheel setscrew locks. This would later prove to be not nearly as brilliant as it seemed at the very drunk time.
If you're shooting a .45/70, no sense in using light bullets, right? If you're gonna be a hammer, be a sledge! A foot or so of #8 rebar, with a conical broadhead of 4140 would make a dandy bolt, we thought. I added some ten-gauge fins for stabilization, properly using 7018 rod as rebar hates brittle welds.
History would be made at daylight.
Best way to avoid hangovers is the classic tossup between not getting drunk to begin with, or not getting sober. Our mission demanded the latter. Off we went to the back forty with several friends who were mightily pissed off at the 0600 call to muster for the new weapon's unveiling and to bring more beer. All were summarily pleased and edified by The Crossbow, though. They even argued to see who got to help lift this 200+ pound f****r out of the truck. It was a monstrosity both lissome in appearance and fearsome in size; it simply oozed the portent of calamitous carnage upon it's target.
That last part was f***in'-A right, as it turned out.
Couldn't get the bolt to really stabilize at the lower-velocity test runs, but it hit pretty close to the spray painted bull on the hay bale at forty or so yards. I felt the need; the need for speed - so I decided to stretch that bow back to the stops.
Turns out that whole Newton's Second Law is pretty prescient after all. When I tripped the release from full-cock (using a cord from about twenty feet away), the forces at hand defeated my stellar elevation/windage adjustment gimbal locks. The whole bow assembly tilted WAY up and WAY left, and the bolt went right where it was directed. Had to be better than a hundred yards, a gracefully ballistic parabolic arc right into the driver's side of my buddy's Toyota pickup bed while he was passed out in the cab. I was sure I'd killed him.
The bolt passed cleanly in, and horribly out, both sides of the bed; continued a bit further and buried itself a couple feet into the ground.
I made a command decision on the spot that The Crossbow would be promptly disassembled, never to see daylight again. Were it to fall into the wrong hands - say, some drunken idiots or such - it would spell doom for us all. I made diamond plate patches for my friend's Toyota, which he thought looked pretty bitchin.
That was on a July 5th about thirty years ago. Don't ask for any designs or plans.
Feel free to add your brew-fueled engineering escapades ;)