[Captions by Y Translator] Today, we're going to take a look at scaling up
our miniature grappling hook
using some PVC, hanger wire, and rubber tubing.
This thing can shoot up to 30 feet.
[Music]
You may remember the tiny desktop grappling hook that we built a while ago.
Today, we're going to try and scale that up into something a little larger.
We're going to have a hook a little over a foot long,
and we're going to build the whole thing out of PVC and some rubber tube,
and build a grappling hook that will launch way farther away.
Here's what we've got in mind.
We'll build a simple frame out of PVC, and attach our rubber hose.
Our grappling hook will be made out of a dowel and some hanger wire,
and we should be able to launch that towing a string 30 feet away.
To get started, we're going to need some hanger wire, a dowel,
couple different pieces of PVC, and some rubber surgical tubing.
First thing we want to do is build the grappling hook itself,
and that is going to be made out of some hanger wire and a piece of dowel.
We can cut our dowel off at 1 foot long if it's too long to start,
and we want to start with our hanger wire as straight as we can.
So let's cut it off near the neck,
and then just straighten out all of the wire.
[Music]
We now need to bend this wire into our grappling hook shape,
and we want three prongs that the top.
It's really good at grabbing stuff with three.
So we're going to start by giving ourself a little bit of extra wire
that will attach to the shaft of the stick,
and then we'll start bending in those hooks shapes.
[Music]
Our wire comes up.
It goes out for one spike, out for a second spike,
out for a third spike, and then comes back down.
It's got a little bit of extra wire on here so we can trim that off.
Now, of course, this isn't holding itself together very well.
It doesn't look much like a grappling hook.
So let's modify it.
We're going to use some thin bailing wire.
Wrap that tightly around parts of it,
and then bend the hooks into the shape that we want.
[Music]
If you really wanted extra strength on your hook, you could double this up.
Cut the same pieces of wire out of a hanger,
make it into the same shape, attach it on top of this,
and just go over all of it with bailing wire to really reinforce it.
I kind of like the single version.
It's a little bit lighter weight.
Still does a pretty good job.
Now, let's cut off that one foot length from our dowel.
[Music]
To attach our wire hook onto the top of this dowel,
we're now going to sand the sides down, so it becomes a sort of tapered point.
[Music]
The wedge will fit in between the two wires, which will bend to fit
along the sides of the dowel,
and then attach the whole thing using more wire, and some tightly wound tape.
When the wire is pulled tight, it really starts to bite into the wood a little
bit, which gives it a pretty secure grip.
[Music]
Now, to hold the wire in place, and just to make it a little nicer
to hold onto, I've had times where I've picked stuff up with this wire
on it, and ended up stabbing my finger.
We're going to use some electrical tape to cover that all.
Electrical tape is also really nice because as it stretches,
it does a very good job of conforming perfectly
to what you're wrapping it around.
With that, the grappling hook itself is now assembled,
and it's time to start building the launcher.
We've got some 1/2 inch PVC and some 3/4 inch PVC.
Most of this is going to be 3/4 inch PVC with just a little piece of the 1/2 inch.
To start off, let's cut a piece of our 1/2 inch PVC, about 3 inches long.
[Music]
Next, we want to cut a piece from our 3/4 inch PVC that's about 18 inches long.
[Music]
Our smaller 1/2 inch piece of PVC is going to be attached near the end
of our 18 inch piece of 3/4 inch PVC.
This piece here is going to be a guide.
The grappling hook will thread down through there, and it will keep it aimed
the direction we want as it launches out.
To attach it, there's a few different things we're going to do,
and we're going to try and make it pretty sturdy.
But it is important to remember that this smaller piece is actually
not going to have any pressure put on it.
The elastic band will be attached to the bigger piece of pipe,
as will the trigger, as will pretty much everything.
So while the grappling hook is going to be guided by this small rod,
if it's not super well attached, it shouldn't make much difference
because nothing's going to push it off.
Even though it's not super important that it's attached really well,
I do want to make a nice connection.
So first, I'm going to sand down both sides a little bit,
so we have a nice flat joining
rather than the two curved surfaces that we have right now.
Not bad.
Now, we're going to use just a little bit of some PVC glue
attach those pieces together.
And then, in what is probably overkill, we're also going to use some duct tape.
[Music]
Now, that is on there, probably much more securely than we need it to be,
but better too much than too little.
Our surgical tubing is going to take the place of what we used a rubber band
for with our miniature grappling hook build.
It's a lot the same thing.
It's rubber and it's very stretchy, and it's pretty strong stuff.
So we're going to attach that on to here, and that's going to act
as the propulsion for our grappling hook.
Let's cut off a piece of our tubing about 1 foot long.
We want that to loop behind our support piece here,
and we want it to be attached to the top,
and we're just going to use a zip tie to hold it in place there.
[Music]
Take our hook.
put it onto our rubber.
[Music]
Launching.
With the miniature grappling hook launcher, we used a clothes pin
to hold the hook and the rubber band back in place before we fired.
A single clothespin would not have nearly the power to hold this back.
This rubber is far too stiff, and has a lot more spring to it
than a single rubber band.
So it a clothespin's not going to do it.
So we're going to have to build our own mechanism,
and we are going to make it similar to a clothes pin, but modified slightly.
This is going to be our substitute clothespin piece.
We'll cut a notch into the bottom of the grappling hook
that can be gripped onto by this portion of the wood down here,
and then we'll drill a hole into it to act as a hinge point right about there.
Let's cut this out.
[Music]
Here's how our trigger mechanism will work.
The band will be behind the grappling hook, pushing it forward.
When we push down on the back of this lever here,
it should get shot out.
We're going to use some more hanger wire to attach
our clothespin piece to the PVC.
[Music]
Alright.
Let's see how our trigger mechanism is working.
It's now attached with a piece of hanger wire.
Let's test this outside.
[Music]
Whoo.
[Music]
That's a good launch.
Of course, it won't launch quite as far once there's a cord attached to it,
because it will have extra weight, and friction that it has to overcome.
We're going to be using this nylon string as the cord that attaches
to our grappling hook,
and we need a way to make that spool off really nicely.
So, what we're going to do is take this plastic cone inside this thread,
and use that as a spool to wrap our cord around.
[Music]
We're going to want the spool for our thread to rest kind of below
where it's launching out of,
and so, we need to build more frame,
and while we're doing that,
we're also going to build sort of a shoulder rest for this thing
so we can hold on to it, have it pressed up against our shoulder as we fire,
make it look a little bit more professional.
[Music]
Let's start with a T connection,
and then we'll go down just enough to have a handle.
[Music]
Turn the corner there.
Let's see.
Let's get a piece, maybe, 10 inches long?
[Music]
That'll be a good spot.
And then we need a piece to back this up enough that it's
pressed up against our shoulder.
[Music]
Another small piece, and just one more elbow to give it a sort of rounded edge.
Attaching our spool to our piece of PVC.
I don't I want this to be permanently attached.
I want this to be removable.
So what we're going to do is drill a hole through the cone-shaped piece,
and the PVC pipe that's just wide enough to fit this nail in,
and that nail will work as a linchpin that keep the cone in place
when we want it there, but we can easily remove it.
[Music]
Let's take down the point of our nail just a little bit with a file,
because we don't need it so sharp.
That's better.
Much less likely to stab ourselves.
Now, let's take our nylon string, measure out about 30 or 35 feet of it.
Attach one end to our grappling hook, and the other end onto our cone.
[Music]
Drill another small hole into our cone.
This hole is just wide enough that we can fit the string through.
[Music]
Fit that through, and add a knot.
And then, in addition to the knot,
we'll use a piece of tape just to hold it flat down in place on the inside.
Really, the knot is what's going to hold it in place,
but tape will just keep the string where we want it.
If we want, we can just carefully wrap the cord around the cone,
trying to keep it as close together, and neat as possible, and that will work.
But there is a faster way.
Power.
I'm going to take this forstner bit, set that down inside the cone,
fit the drill over that until it's flush with the cone.
Tighten it on.
And the forstner bit will help provide a little bit of grip down inside the cone.
And now...
[Music]
We've got a cord on our grappling hook,
so I think we need to test this out again.
Let's take it outside.
[Music]
Not bad.
One little thing you may notice is that I had to hold this down.
The pressure from it trying to escape was enough that as soon as I let go,
it fired, and that's not what we want.
So what we're going to do is take a little bit more of this rubber tubing,
and we're going to attach that around the trigger piece.
So it holds itself pressed down.
However, we didn't add that yet because we now want to glue
all this together more permanently, and paint it,
and I didn't want to have to cut that rubber off, and then reattach it.
Time for some paint.
[Music]
Random fact: Grappling hooks are a tool used by combat engineers.
After launching the hook forward, they set off the trip
wires by pulling the hook back.
[Music]
I think we are in business.
Let's give this thing a few more tests,
including seeing what we can grab with it.
[Music]
Three. Two. One.
[Music]
It's basically a perfect shot.
[Music]
It's so much easier than just walking over and grabbing the bucket.
The grappling hook gun souped up to a larger size,
and don't worry, we're not done yet.
We are planing the scale this up even more to the point where we can shoot
a functional grappling hook that can hold our weight,
and climb the rope after it.
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