Batman's Grappling Hook

The moons high in the pitch black dark sky. With the bat-signal in the sky, people from Gotham again seems to be in danger. It's time for the villains of gotham, to face there true fear. It's time they meet the Bat of Gotham.

Batman never ceases to surprise people from his intellect and some carzy gadgets. A Grappling gun is one of those gadgets. Unlike Superman or the Martian, Batman is the only fictional superhero who behind the mask is a billionare playboy, that has trained himself to revenge on injustice ,an oath tempered by a sense of justice. Though he does not have the ability to fly or does not have super strength, he's determination to fight is nonlike others.

Well, in this instructable we'll be making a grappling gun, very similar to batman. Though its just a prototype, it still fires more or less like the original one. We'll be using Firecrackers to propel a hook with nylon rope to it. The firecracker will be set off electrically using a li-ion battery, that can be easily replaced/recharged.

Caution : This is a project for 18+ only, cause it may cause harm to people around or yourself. Please do understand the risk associated with the instructions stated here.

The information provided in this instructable is for entertainment purposes only. It is not meant to be used for any harmful reasons. This instructable and its author disclaim any liability for any damage to personal property or injury incurred from use of the information provided. Firecrackers and use of power tools is inherently risky, and serious personal injury may result. Always read the manuals and follow safety guidelines. Always research and plan any project you undertake thoroughly. Sometimes, a project is over your head, and it just makes more sense to hire a qualified professional for the helping you out on it.
Also enjoy, making this project, replacting it, modifying it or adding new features to it. Do share your innovations. Hope you enjoy it.

Making a grapplying gun is more or less like making yourself a hand-gun, well atleast both work on same concept. Only in case of grapplying gun, instead of propelling a bullet, we shoot out a hook with a rope attached to it. The hook then gets strangled and one can use it either to pull a beautful lady out of danger or swing like spiderman. Here we'll be using heat-resistant plumbing pipes and joints to make the body of the gun, which will also resist the heat dissipated by the exploding firecracker. Yes, you heard it right i used the word "exploding" here.
In general, if you study the working of a hand-gun, you'll notice that it has a closed chamber with long noozle at one end. A bullet, which holds a projectile in place some explosive material in it, is placed in the chamber. Now when you trigger explosive material the projectile is propelled out of the noozle towards the target. Here the chamber confines the explosion out of the nozzle, concentrating all its energy way out. So the velocity and the amount of kinetic energy possed by the projectile is directly proportional to explosive used, which incase of hand gun happens to be gun-powder. Now if you google for gunpowder you'll find a long list of websites with the perfect receipe for gunpowder, but personally i would recommend using firecracker's they do have the explosive powder required which is usually under a set-off explosive scale and also it's available of the shelf.

For making the hook we'll be using a 3 inch long threaded screw or a metal rod would just do fine. This would be our projectile in case of grappling gun. And for rope we'll be using nylon rope, which is quite strong, flexible and also available off-the-shelf.

Time to call in Alfred to buy a list of materials, in Stock. Well we might require spares too..So here's the list

• 1/2 inch heat resistant pipe
• 1/3 inch stainless steel pipe
• 1/2 inch 'T' angle pipe Joint
• small firecrackers- large enough to fit in the 1/3 tubing
• 26 gauge nichrome wire
• Now here's a catch you'll have to find a pipe that either fits exactly inside the 1/2 inch pipe or outside it, size should be large enough that the pipe just slides in esily.
• 16 gauge single stranded wire
• The 18650 - famous lithium ploymer ion battery
• A 15A push button
• Two component epoxy putty - I used M-Seal
• Super Glue

make sure you have everything in stock, just so no ones suspicious.

Lets work on the first part of the grappling hook gun, that is the grip handle. The grip handle holds the firing mechanism, battery, rope and the button to trigger the weapon. Use the "T" angle to as a grip handle's base frame. You might want to increase the sides according to the grip you want. Then comes the center Pipe that will hold the firing mechanism. The pictures are numbered and will help better understand the build process. I have cut a small slot at one side of the T angle to fit a switch in its place. Finally this would be our final frame which would look fimiliar to batman's grappling hook gun. The last picture shows fully assembled frame. DON'T glue everything in place yet, just make sure you have everything cut in measure and in place.
By this time you might wanna get a cup of coffee or a sandwich maybe, so ALFRED...!?

From the last step, you'll be now having all the cut pieces for the grappling gun frame. Now we'll have to add some strength to the frame to withstand the explosion of the firecracker inside. Our first line of defense are the heat resistant pipes. Now use the two component epoxy compound, mix the two component and fill the T angle with the compound. This would be our explosion chamber. Next use the 1/3 pipe and place the 1/4 stainless steel pipe in it (Picture [3]). With the pipe also place in the 26 gauge wire having two leads in it. Picture [4] will show how one end of the firing mechanism should look like. Now fill the gap between these pipe with the same compound, just in case we have a leak in the stainless steel pipe it will be filled in by the epoxy compound. Picture [5] and [6] shows when thats done.
Great everything looks good now...!! Lets move to next step

To fire the fire cracker inside the firing mechanism, we'll be using nichrome wire. On one end of two leads of the wire we will twist nichrome between the leads. as shown in the picture[1] & [2]. When on the other end of the two leads of the wire we apply enough power supply, the nichrome wire would heat up. The amount of heat generated would be enough to ignite the cracker in the closed chamber and propel anything out of the stainless steel pipe.

At this stage you should have these two parts. You can place the firing mechanism inside the gun frame and you'll have a partially complete grappling gun. We now need to add battery in between the wire. Strip the wire in between and add the battery in place. The polarity does not matter here. Now at one end of the wire we'll have nichrome wire at the two leads, in between would be the battery and on the other end will have a switch connected to it. The last picture [5] has the circuit diagram, which is very very simple. Just connect everything in place. Make sure you don't leave any connection loose, or it might get hot and it might heat up.Picture [4] shows you everything in place partially assembled gun.

When complete with previous steps, you'll be having the partial gun complete. Now to add the explosive material i.e. the fire cracker, just load it from the open end. The fuse of the cracker should come out from the side where nichrome wire heats up. Twist the fuse of the firecracker properly with nichrome wire, to increase the surface contact between them. So when the nichrome wire heats up the fire cracker explodes instantly. Check the pictures for reference.

The next part which is important is the rope holding mechanism. We just have to make sure the rope doesn't get strangled in itself and the doesn't affect the shooting out projectiles range. For that we'll be using stainless steel bend in the angle shown in the picture [1]. Using a wire and glue, we will , make a tripod like structure on the gun frame. You can use the reference pictures above [2],[3],[4] and [5].

Finally when you have everything in place glued, you be holding the Batman's grappling gun. It does look like a beauty doesn't it. You might wanna call Mr. Fox to get it in BLACK..!!

lets see if it works or not..!

so finally you're goddamn Batman ..!!

If you want any help, you can reach me out @scifiswapnil, or mail me at kalhapure.swapnil@gmail.com.

Also check out my other projects : www.scifiswapnil.in/projects/