Lacumo: Thanks for taking the time to check on the design. Truth: there could be a weak point in the design. The wood there is an old seasoned Mahogany. It's strong, but I will be very aware of possible failures in my next one. I may reinforce the thickness of the fork. In fact, I've never had fork hits in more than two years, when I began shooting and making slingshots; a little bit of skill, a great bite of luck, I guess. BTW:
https://www.facebook.com/Kookaburrakatties/ Awesome slingshots. Thanks, and thanks everyone to see my baby.
Thanks for the response. I honestly dislike playing the role of "That Tiresome Old Voice Of Safety First" but every now and then I just can't help myself and I have to chime in. When I resumed shooting (as a retiree ~7 years ago and for the first time in >50 years), I had two fork hits on a board cut frame and broke the frame with the second one. Fortunately for me, I was one of the lucky ones. I was wearing safety glasses at the time and I didn't get broken frame pieces flying back into my face at full speed. Thankfully, none of that tiresome cheekbone reconstruction surgery! In retrospect, I think I sub-consciously took that experience as my clue to become The Ranting Board Cut Safety Preacher. Ever since then, I've had a pathological aversion to board cut frames and I just can't stop myself from preaching The Holy Gospel of Board Cut Cautions once every year to two. Also since then... I've never had another fork hit. I learned on the spot how to be DAMMMMMMN careful and I've been paying meticulous attention to stance, grip, aiming, release and follow-through ever since.
Anyhow, some food for thought ... If you did your design using Wobat's split-frame concept (maybe--YIKES!--using some exotic African, Asian or South American hardwoods) or else with 1" thick commercial HDPE board (
NOT any DIY HDPE, which can be iffy and potentially dangerous stuff), I think you could produce an impeccable, "above criticism" winner in both the functional and "Beauty Contest" categories. From everything I've read, gluing HDPE to HDPE (for the palm swell) is close to impossible so if you went the HDPE route, you'd probably have to bolt the palm swell onto the main frame. For details on the agonies of going the DIY HDPE route, read
https://slingshotforum.com/topic/22723-hdpe-sheet/?hl=hdpeand search "HDPE" in the DIY Slingshots > Slingshot Tutorials forum here. I played extensively with DIY HDPE a few years ago, and all my efforts taught me one thing---if I'm going to make a HDPE frame, I'll use commercial HDPE board, which is pretty much bullet-proof.
At any rate ... good luck with whatever you choose to do or not do from here on out and above all else,
be real careful when playing with board cut frames. Thus endeth today's sermon!
