Michael Schultheiss's Jenga pistol

Michael Schultheiss sent me some photos of his Jenga pistol, which he built, inspired by my Jenga pistol. I find it interesting how even though both my design and his are strictly utilitarian, both designs have very different styles.

Michael's pistol looks like it might have been used by pirates, whereas mine has much more of a square-ish modern look to it. I really like the handle detail on Michael's pistol.

The trigger works just like it does on mine, with the main rubber band holding the trigger hook closed. Michael's trigger turns on a wooden shaft, whereas I opted to use a cut off nail.

The front block has a pulley in it to wind the rubber band around. The pulley is large enough that it can accommodate the knots that are used to attach several rubber bands end to end.

The rubber band hooks into the bolt block similar to how it does on mine, but the slot is facing forward toward the pulley.

Michael later switched to a black bungee-cord like string for more power.

With the relatively heavy bolt block, and the more powerful elastic, there was danger of the bolt eventually smashing off the front block, so Michael added a spring around the pin to dampen the impact on the block hitting the front.

I'm thinking, a spring like that could be handy if tuned and positioned just right as it would potentially get the bolt to retract on its own. With my Jenga pistol, when shooting out the last bock in a layer, one has to be very quick to pull back the pistol so that the upper part of the Jenga stack won't fall on the pistol's pin.

This Jenga pistol was inspired by my earlier Jenga pistol. I have since revised my design with Jenga pistol, version 3, which I also sell plans for.