Sable-Machined Slingshot Is A Composite Marvel

Armed with an overseas CNC machine retrofitted with custom electronics, [Eric] has taken to wowing us with his suite of home-fabricated slingshots. In a more recent stint, he’s just polished off his Enzo Carbon Fiber Hydra Slingshot, complete with a build log that’s loaded with step-by-step insights.

[Eric’s] build started with a few carbon panels laying dormant in his shop for half a year. After epoxying two of these boards together for added thickness, he machines them down with his retrofitted Sable-2015 “Lunchbox CNC.” His final product accepts a few press-fit inserts, a few more machined ABS edge pieces for aesthetics, and behold: a professional slingshot that’s about as beautiful as it is dangerous.

Although the Sable-2015 CNC machine (made in Taiwan) isn’t a frequent flyer here on Hackaday, it had dozens of proud owners on a few hobby machinist forums that will rave about its wares. We’re proud to see a small-but-sturdy machine that we could carry one-handed be put to such delicate work.

[Eric] could’ve had us with his Lunchbox CNC Instructable, but he’s taken his craftsmanship to the next level by leveraging his homebrew tools and living the bootstrapped-machine-shop narrative. Slingshots don’t land here too often on these pages, but if you’re hungry for another machine monster, have a look at [Dennis the Menace’s] Triple Threat.

9 thoughts on “Sable-Machined Slingshot Is A Composite Marvel

  1. $215 each. Sounds about right given the time and material costs. Milling carbon fiber is nasty work.

    What material aside from epoxy is in between the two carbon fiber layers? Was the epoxy degassed before being applied and clamped?

    1. Especially impressive since he’s using rocks.

      I’ve got a couple sling shots that for awhile I was practicing with daily (trying to control squirrels in the garden) and quickly found that it was much easier to hit targets consistently if you used marbles or ball bearings. Using rocks is way harder because not only does each one weigh differently, but their shape usually makes them tumble through the air.

      Maybe this guy is not only very accurate with the sling shot, but also good at picking stones that all will fly more or less the same…

  2. This “carbon fiber” FAD is outright annoying. Reminds me of the wood panel craze of the 1970’s. Wood panel on the side of station wagons, dashboards, inside your house…. sheesh ! I have (had) ‘carbon fiber’ on my company vehicle dashboard, absolutely hate it – got a can of flat black spray paint and painted it over. Looks 100% better !

  3. Hmm, seems like the guy on eBay supposedly selling these Sable CNCs has zero items for sale. Has he stopped selling them?
    Anyone know where to go for one nowadays for delivery to the UK? There’s some chancer in Europe selling them for over double the price, on a really fishy website, actually there’s no indicated currency, I’m assuming euros. :-(

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