Building a crossbow was a challenge for 3rd century artisans, an activity that easily took a week to construct a single bow. Today, the same thing can be done within a day — with the help of a 3D printer.
Anyone interested in trying to build their own little 3D printed crossbow, is able to follow the example of Thingiverse user jrombousky, who designed a one piece crossbow model, based on what the original crossbows looked like.
[nggallery id=70]The crossbow was printed out with a 2 mm wall thickness and after a few tests it was proven this offered the best flexibility and durability. The trigger was a little tricky to print, so support material was used and the crossbow was printed handle side up.
There are many debates around the issue of 3D printing weapons and potential danger, however, we’re thinking this is probably not one of those cases, that said, this tiny crossbow could definitely cause a little fuss in mid-school classrooms and drive a few teachers crazy.
The design is available at thingiverse and story was originally published in trenchphysics.com.
