Spider-Man Grappler

Spiderman is a fictional Marvel superhero who has the ability to shoot webs from his wrist and swing from them. As of right now or maybe ever, humans can't shoot webs from their wrists. I am recreating this by using a spring loaded device that shoots a 3D printed grappler with twine attached to it.

Supplies

The first step to building anything is to gather your materials. In creating this I used a compression spring from an old Nerf gun, an old pizza box, round magnets and Poly Line (twine) that I ordered off amazon, super glue, duct tape, and 3D printed materials that I designed myself off of Onshape.com. Feel free to use any spray paint for color like I did on some parts.

Creating the Base

When you cut out the base, make sure it can fit around your wrist with extra room for it to overlap. I also made a long piece that will act as a trigger that runs from about the center of my palm to the end of the base (make sure that the long piece is under the base).

Making the Trigger

From the long piece in the last step, I cut off part of the end that will make the trigger easier to bend. This however didn't work out so I 3D printed a trigger that was too long so I cut it. When designing the piece, I suggest making the extruded piece at least 2 inches (otherwise it’s difficult to hold the piece that is going to be launched). From there I super glued a magnet on to the trigger that will help pull it back in place.

Finalizing the Trigger

The magnet on the trigger from the last step isn't shown but when you taper the trigger on to the long piece of cardboard, make sure that there is a magnet superglued on the trigger piece. Along with this, create a piece out of strong cardboard that goes from the edge of the ejecting piece of the trigger to a little over half way (displayed in the picture). Be sure to super glue a magnet on the edge of the cardboard and cut of any unnecessary parts as seen in the picture. Tape the long piece and trigger together and then tape that piece to the bottom of the base. Make sure that the trigger starts around the beginning of your hand. Super glue the newly created piece of cardboard on top of the base and make sure that the magnets line up. I have strong magnets so that I can pull the trigger and afterwards the magnets will snap the piece back in place.

Reinforce the Spring

NOTE: Never throw away any materials that can be reused.

When I created the 3D printed trigger, I had an extra piece that I had to cut off. This piece fortuitously fit what I needed for the spring. I cut out a piece of the cardboard that was on top of the base so that the 3D printed piece could fit in it perfectly.

Installing the Spring

In this step, I cut a hole in the center of the 3D printed piece small enough that the spring would fit around it, and large enough so that twine can run through it. I super glued the compression spring on the 3D printed piece and then super glued the 3D printed piece into the cardboard hole.

3D Printing the Grappler

In this part I used Onshape to design a grappling hook through 5 tools: center point circle, center point rectangle, 3 point arc, fillet and the extrude. To start the design, I used the 3 point arc and placed the first two points 6 inches apart and the third point is what defines the radius of the circle (I made it 3 inches). I created a second 3 point arc that connected the original points that are 6 inches apart but instead the radius is 1.977 inches. Then I extruded the figure 1 inch and used the fillet tool (0.5 inch) on all sharp corners that makes it look like a banana. Then, from the origin, I made a 0.5 inch center point circle and extruded it 2 inches so that it connected to the bottom middle of the hook. From there I used a center point rectangle (1.26 across and 1.721 down) and extruded it 1 inch with the symmetric and remove tools applied so that it removes part of the cylindrical piece. If you have a smaller spring, I suggest shortening the cylindrical piece even more.

Assembling the Grappler

For this part, I cut a piece of twine about 5 feet long and used duct tape to tape in to the center of the extruded piece on the hook. I originally use a medium sized piece of rope but it was too heavy to shoot it and it was always getting caught on the spring so I switched to twine.

Combine the Grappler to the Base

This is the easiest step of creating the web shooter. I ran the string through the spring and the hole in the plastic piece. I tried to create a compartment for the twine but when I shot it, the twine kept getting stuck.

The Finished Product

I noticed that when I support the plastic piece that supports the spring, it shoots a lot better. Because of the compression spring, the grappler always wants to push on the trigger. In response to this, I push in on the top part of the trigger and let go when I am ready to shoot it. Unfortunately I had some trouble uploading videos, so I took screenshots from the videos of the web shooter working. As you can see, it can grab hold of bags and trees. I strongly suggest not to swing from it, as it may break and cause injury. Although in the future, I may be able to make something that I can swing from using the same construction just with different material.