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Device to launch a Frisbee!

A

Adn4n

Golden Member
I have to design a frisbee-launching device to hit a target an uncertain distance away. My budget is $20, any ideas? The frisbee, naturally, has to spin in order to fly.
 
Can you put a rotating axle in the center of the frisbee? Then you could put a string on the axle, and launch it using a linear launcher (like a fork on top and one on bottom) with some guiding rods/rails to guide their movement
Think of it this way: a system that allows the frisbee to fly on a single direction, a string around it to rotate it when starts to move, and something to push it. A crossbow-like system maybe?

Anyway, this isn't highly technical... so wrong forum
 
being someone who has layed ultimate frisbee for several years, i would like to see if this can be done. The motion to throw a frisbee is pretty fluid, and i'm not sure you could get very good flight characteristics by simply shooting a spinnign disk in a straight line.
 
Originally posted by: Gibsons
Look into the launchers (usually called "traps") used for skeet shooting.
Here's one Text
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I thought of as well. If you have a spring-loaded lever arm that swings the disc across an arc, then it will impart some rotation on it. Whether the rotation is enough depends on the details of your design.
 
Originally posted by: BrownTown
being someone who has layed ultimate frisbee for several years, i would like to see if this can be done. The motion to throw a frisbee is pretty fluid, and i'm not sure you could get very good flight characteristics by simply shooting a spinnign disk in a straight line.
Click to expand...

Once you launch it, it's a spinning disk. The rest of the trajectory is influenced only by the starting parameters, not the way they were created.
(I admit this device will never get the beautiful trajectory you can launch it on with just a bit of practice, but it should do the trick... mostly)
 
Originally posted by: Adn4n
I have to design a frisbee-launching device to hit a target an uncertain distance away. My budget is $20, any ideas? The frisbee, naturally, has to spin in order to fly.
Click to expand...

Two rotating drums that are properly spaced to allow a disc to fit throught it. You can find the motors in just about any power tool or applience like a vacuume cleaner. Get some belts from the autoparts store or junkyard and the rubber coated drums you could make out of coffee cans and rubber sheets.
 
May I suggest looking at the problem from a different angle for a possibly easier solution to engineer? Instead of the inside throw with your thumb on top, consider the sidearm throw with your thumb inside. This translates to something like the hand skeet or dog tennis ball throwers. That might give you a cheap solution. The 'thumb' and sidearm action will get the rotation you need. A stopper and the shape of the thumb can create a consistant release point.

Edit - And I was thinking an arm made of nylon or other plastic that will have some action to it.
 
Just another avenue to research. The Navy actually did research on just such a mechanism whose intended purpose was to lengthen the time a flare stayed aloft. The project was a failure but the mechanism purportedly spun the device up to 10,000 rpm before ejecting. Don't know what became of the mechanism but an old frienc of mine has a 6' olive-drab aluminum frisbee on his wall that says USN.
 
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
Just another avenue to research. The Navy actually did research on just such a mechanism whose intended purpose was to lengthen the time a flare stayed aloft. The project was a failure but the mechanism purportedly spun the device up to 10,000 rpm before ejecting. Don't know what became of the mechanism but an old frienc of mine has a 6' olive-drab aluminum frisbee on his wall that says USN.
Click to expand...
This one might be a little hard to make under $20 😉

Wait, anybody got a head dead Raptor or 10k SCSI? 😀
 
Originally posted by: gsellis
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
Just another avenue to research. The Navy actually did research on just such a mechanism whose intended purpose was to lengthen the time a flare stayed aloft. The project was a failure but the mechanism purportedly spun the device up to 10,000 rpm before ejecting. Don't know what became of the mechanism but an old frienc of mine has a 6' olive-drab aluminum frisbee on his wall that says USN.
Click to expand...
This one might be a little hard to make under $20 😉

Wait, anybody got a head dead Raptor or 10k SCSI? 😀
Click to expand...

No it would not be hard to make for less than $20.

First, a HDD motor does not have enough torque to launch a frisbee. Second you could find a used Woodworking router (spins at 30,000 RPM) and attach a shaft to the chuck. Routers are meant to be mounted so attaching it to a surface is not a problem. Alternativly you could use a vaccume cleaner or 1/2 inch drill motor and use belts or gears to achieve the rpm you are looking for. Another method to achieve 10,000 rpm would be to use a pair of cones and have the belt move up and down the pair of cones to create an adjustable spin ratio.


Two properly spaced drums rotating in the same direction but one is spinning at a speed that is 50% of the other one should be able to launch a frisbee.
 
A simple design...hope I can describe it right...

take a board, put two pegs on one end and a long elastic band between them

Here is a top down view. "O" is where pegs go, Z is raised edge, x is slot in board.

XOXxXXO
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ
XXXxXXZ

Here is a front view (reversed!! so that I can align text better in this window)

O
Z O
XXXxXXX

Note one high edge and slot down middle.

Pull back the rubber band, attach it to a peg on a separate L-shaped board that kinda looks like so:

(top view)

XX
XX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XOXXX
XXXXX

The frisbee sits up in the gap at the top. The "O" is where the peg for the rubber band attaches.


(front view ... not reversed)

O
XXXXX
x

edit: (this didn't text align right....the "shuttle" needs a small peg sticking out the bottom to guide it through the slot on the main board)

So all you have made really is some shuttle to hold the frizbee and it gets slid up the board by rubber bands.

The magic: The frizbee is held against one edge of the board during launch so it will gain rotation as it slides along!

Rudimentary, yes. Very cheap. Not very efficient.

Some things to keep in mind:
Put perhaps a rubber strip (stapled on strip of leftover bike tire inner-tube) on the board edge that the frisbee is hitting. It needs to have more friction that the other two board edges on the shuttle that it is touching or it won't really spin. something low friction on the shuttle edges would help too...say strips taken from a plastic kitchen cutting board.

The slot has to prevent the shuttle from rubbing against the board edge...otherwise the friction that would cause the frisbee to spin would cause the whole thing never move at all. The shuttle does not have to be very wide...there can be a big gap between the shuttle and the (ruberized?) board edge.

Need a strong rubber band because of all the friction in this thing. Either LOTS of little ones roped together or perhaps a bicycle inner-tube or two.

The longer the board and the stronger the rubber bands, the better the launch.


🙂

some cheap materials for this:
scrap wood,
bike inner tubes,
plastic kitchen cutting board.

 
Bicycle innertubes do not have much elasticity hence cannot flex or stretch. Your best bet is to get a latex band from a sling shot or one of those water ballon launchers.
 
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