u/Efficient_End_5800

▲ 28 r/maker

I invented a mechanical auto-loading slingshot. Super stoked—my international patent is almost approved!

Hey makers. I’ve been working on this design for a while and I'm really excited today. I just got word that my international patent for this mechanism is about to be officially approved.

Traditional slingshots have one big bottleneck: getting the next round loaded is slow and clunky (especially for beginners). I wanted to engineer a solution, so I designed this push-button dispensing system.

It stores 8mm steel bearings in an internal channel. You just press the button, and the mechanical linkage feeds the next bearing directly into a custom magnetic pouch. No fumbling around—it's just instantly ready for the next draw.

To handle the heavy band tension safely, I CNC machined the entire frame from solid aluminum.

The video shows how the internal dispensing cycle works. Super happy with how the engineering turned out. Let me know what you guys think of the mechanics! 👊

u/Efficient_End_5800 — 2 hours ago

Still got the J-Link cables hanging out, but my new tri-mode split is finally alive (auto-switches wired/wireless between halves!)

Pardon the mess, I literally just finished debugging this and haven't even unplugged the J-Link and serial cables yet.

Left side is the master board supporting full tri-mode (USB, BT, 2.4GHz), and I managed to keep the 2.4g receiver down to a standard nano size. The part I’m most stoked about though: the interconnect between the left and right halves automatically switches between wired and wireless seamlessly.

Wrestling with the firmwarearchitectureto get all this routing right was a headache, but it feels great to see it running.

Drop a comment if you check out the video—any guesses on what other features I managed to cram into the firmware?

u/Efficient_End_5800 — 1 day ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 90 r/slingshots

The truth about the "Auto-Loading Slingshots" flooding this sub. (A safety warning from the actual inventor).

Hey everyone. I know a lot of you are getting sick of seeing this design spammed everywhere, and people are calling me a scammer or a spam bot. I honestly don't blame you. But I need to set the record straight because things are getting dangerous.

First, PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY LINKS IN THIS THREAD. My original account (u/Taoglow) was permanently banned by Reddit’s automated bots because too many people were dropping links in the comments, and the system flagged it as mass self-promotion. I don't care if I sell zero units. I am not here to market. I am here to expose the bootleggers.

Here is how the market got flooded with garbage: I am the original inventor of this CNC magnetic auto-loading mechanism. Early on, I did a very small, limited beta release in China strictly to gather user feedback for optimization. My goal was always a global release. Bootleggers assumed I was only staying local, so they bought my prototypes, reverse-engineered them, and rushed their knockoffs to the overseas market while I was still in the shop optimizing the final version.

They copied my Gen 4 prototype, which means they mass-produced all of my old mistakes.

If you bought one of these from a random site recently, you probably noticed it sucks. Here is why the fakes are failing (and why they are dangerous):

  • The Ticking Time Bomb (Safety): Scammers are selling 3D-printed plastic versions of this. They are putting the same heavy band tension on cheap plastic that I designed for solid CNC aircraft aluminum. When that 3D-printed fork snaps, the broken pieces are going straight back into your face and eyes. They do not care about your safety.
  • The Tolerances: The return accuracy of their loading head is completely off due to cheap, sloppy machining.
  • The Magnet Issue: They use the wrong magnets. If the magnetic pull is too weak, the steel balls drop out constantly. If it’s too strong, it completely kills the muzzle velocity (FPS) upon release.
  • The Feed Gate Clearance: The height of the ammo retention lip has to be exact. Too high and the magnet can't grab the ammo; too low and it fails to load entirely.
  • The Ejection Timing: The timing between the push-button spring and the steel ball is critical. If the pop-up is a fraction of a second too fast, the ball bounces away. Too slow, and it fails to seat in the pouch.

I can’t reveal the exact math and dimensions right now because my International Patent is about 2 months away from final approval (I already hold the domestic Chinese invention patent).

People watch my testing videos and say, "Oh, that looks so simple." It looks simple because of the hundreds of hours of invisible engineering I put in to make it feel effortless. It is not just "slapping a magnet on a stick."

I will be making aseparatepost soon detailing exactly how to spot the fakes, and I will be dropping screenshots of the bootleg listings so you know who to avoid.

It makes me sick seeing my design blatantly stolen, my patent ignored, and people getting ripped off with broken, dangerous trash. I don't care about the money right now, but I will not let these thieves ruin the reputation of my work. Stay safe, and watch out for the fakes.

reddit.com
u/Efficient_End_5800 — 1 day ago

Now it weighs the same as a glass of water. Is it too heavy?

I have emptied out all the internal spaces that could be emptied.

u/Efficient_End_5800 — 2 days ago