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How to Make a Catapult With a Hanger

One of the many good thing about catapults is that you can build them out of almost anything. A piece of wood the right shape will do, or bits or metal pipe. However the advantage of using a hanger is that they can almost always be found easily and can bent into shape without any particular difficulty. A catapult of this sort will do very well for shooting paper balls around or even launching small stones at tins cans for a bit of target practice.

Things You'll Need

Thick metal hanger
Hacksaw
File
Pliers
Vice
Elastic band
Strip rag

Instructions

- 1
  Saw the hook of the top of the hanger. File off the point if you leave one to be sure you won't snag yourself on it later.
- 2
  Pull the hanger out into a square, pulling at the point where the hook was and the flat, bottom length of the hanger. Put your hand around the angle where the hook was and squish the lengths of wire on either side of the angle together.
- 3
  Use the pliers to twist these two lengths of wire together into a helix. Do not twist too tightly, the loops in the helix should be about wide enough to slide a pencil through. Twist up enough of the two wires to make a handle large enough for your hand. You will still have a square of wire at the top of the handle.
- 4
  Squash the square flat towards the handle so that the hanger forms a "T" shape. Twist the two arms of the T in the same way as the handle. Bend the twisted arms upward so that the the T becomes a "Y."
- 5
  Tie a knot in the middle of the elastic band, forming two loops. Tie the ends of the elastic band around the loops at the tip of each arm of the Y.
- 6
  Wrap the handle up in a strip of rag. Hold it in place with another elastic band. Place an object on the knot in the middle of the elastic band, pull back and fire.

Backyard Toys