An interesting idea from a purely theoretical perspective.
The problem with wood balls mounted on steel fork prongs is that they will eventually rotate around the prongs (any glue will not last long), and possibly break at the (invisible) point of weakness inside the wood grain, with pieces of broken wood potentially flying back towards you.
The forces being applied to the wood balls by fully drawn out flat bands would concentrate on their core section - hence, aluminum would be a safer material for the balls.
However, because of the height of the fork prongs relative to the grip section, the already potentially high amount of wrist torque (fist-grip slingshot) would be accentuated by the relative weight of the wood balls due to leverage effects. A lower fork prong height would reduce wrist torque only to some extent.
Moreover, aiming via the fork prong mounted balls would not be straightforward either. Just my personal assessments with regard to your project.
I came up with a method (video link below) of attaching flat bands to cold bent stainless steel slingshots, which I deem very safe after having made various slingshots with this concept using both 6 mm and 8 mm stainless steel rod, which was cold bent into shape using a proper rod bender - have a look here:
The rod bender I used was purchased online from the US (BAC Industries):
Well worth having.
The problem with wood balls mounted on steel fork prongs is that they will eventually rotate around the prongs (any glue will not last long), and possibly break at the (invisible) point of weakness inside the wood grain, with pieces of broken wood potentially flying back towards you.
The forces being applied to the wood balls by fully drawn out flat bands would concentrate on their core section - hence, aluminum would be a safer material for the balls.
However, because of the height of the fork prongs relative to the grip section, the already potentially high amount of wrist torque (fist-grip slingshot) would be accentuated by the relative weight of the wood balls due to leverage effects. A lower fork prong height would reduce wrist torque only to some extent.
Moreover, aiming via the fork prong mounted balls would not be straightforward either. Just my personal assessments with regard to your project.
I came up with a method (video link below) of attaching flat bands to cold bent stainless steel slingshots, which I deem very safe after having made various slingshots with this concept using both 6 mm and 8 mm stainless steel rod, which was cold bent into shape using a proper rod bender - have a look here:
The rod bender I used was purchased online from the US (BAC Industries):
Well worth having.
