Good Looking Home Made Grenade Launcher Tutorial

[Acrazypenguin]

Hey there guys. There was another thread about making a homemade grenade launcher, and I was asked to put up a quick tutorial on how I built mine. So, here ya go. Just saying, this takes about 5-6 hours of determined work, over 2 days. Unless you skip the wood staining process, that would speed it up quite a bit. But I like the look of it.
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Materials:

-wooden 2x4, ~3ft long (depends on how long you want yours, but I wouldn't go beyond 4ft)

-1.5in diameter PVC pipe, ~1ft (or however long you want your barrel to be)

-sand paper

-electric drill

-wood stain and polyurethane varnish/coating(unless you like the look of unfinished wood...)

-black spraypaint (for the barrel)

-sharpie marker

-jigsaw, or similar electric saw

-electric belt-sander (not neccesary, but speeds things up a bit)

-gorilla glue, or similar all material glue

-duct tape

-small metal hinge

-small door lock (x2)

those last two items can be found in the hardware section at a lowes or home depot, where they keep the door hinges etc
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INSTRUCTIONS:

1. alright step one. take your wooden 2x4, and draw the outline of what you want the body with stock to look like in marker. I included a little front grip on mine. There really is no end to the customization here, so be creative. dont let the wood get too thin in any are, or it might be fragile. NOTE: it should be ONE PIECE OF WOOD. the body should be connected to the stock. ALSO: remember to have the front part of the body STEP DOWN 1.5in, to accomodate the barrel. I will upload a picture so that you can see.

2. now that you have the body drawn out, you can cut it out of the 2x4, leaving you with the wooden body.

3. sand down any imperfections, and make sure that the surface that the barrel will be glued to is as flat as possible.

4. now, find a spot on the body, about the mid point of where the barrel will be glued on, and saw the body in half at a 45* angle, with the first part of the cut closer to the front, and the end part of the cut closer to the back. this will allow the gun to fold in half and up at the same time, presenting the end of the barrel so that you can reload. alternatively, you could just cut straight up and have it fold in half.

5. (optional) lay down a cloth or newspaper, and stain the two halves of your launcher body. let dry overnight.

6. (optional) once the wood stain has dried, apply to polyurethane coting and let dry. this will give the launcher a smooth, clean finish.

7. A. ok so now onto the barrel. since the grenade wont exactly fit into the PVC, the pipe needs to be sanded down on the inside of the barrel. the easiest way to do this is as follows:

7. B. take a electic drill, and stick the muzzle end of the pvc pipe on the end of the drill. just shove it on so that it stays there by friction, with the end you want to sand down sticking up in the air.

7. C. now take the sand paper, and hold it inside the barrel, while spinning the drill. this very quickly sands down the inside of the pipe. CAUTION: doing this results in intense friction inside the pipe, and causes a LOT of HEAT. my sandpaper actually IGNITED IN MY HAND. but i was wearing gloves, and so should you! :)

8. once you have the barrel sanded down enough that it accepts a grenade with ease, you can procede to spraypaint it, and let it dry. I made mine black. But if you wanted, you could make it grey, or if you really fancy it, pink.... umm yeah. Its up to you..

9. ok so by now you should have a finished barrel, front body, and rear body. you can attatch the hinge on the cut you made between the to halves of the body, and then attach the door lock onto the opposite side. this allows you to lock the body in place while playing, and then unlock it to reload. put some little strips of ducttape in the space between the two bodies, to provide some padding and keep the lock tight.

10. now, you can glue on your barrel! follow the directions on your glue bottle, and apply it to JUST THE FRONT BODY PORTION. or else you launcher wont be able to fold. clamp it in place and leave to set and dry.

11. once dried, the only part left to add is the trigger. this is really up to you on how to do. i just glued another door lock so that it rests against the grenade button, and push it forward with my thumb to fire. im sure you guys can find a better way to do this though.

12. sand off the excess glue (i havent done this yet), and ENJOY YOU NEW HOME MADE LAUNCHER!


If you have any questions, just ask! Thanks