First of all, I want to preface this thread by saying the title is referring not to the siege weapon you might think, but actually, rounds made out of masonry mortar. My girlfriend, Sommer, in her infinite sweetness and understanding of my weirdness and obsession with slinging, decided to surprise me the other day with some ammunition she crafted for me in secret out of masonry mortar stuffed into vaseline-lined plastic easter eggs, then dried in her garage for several days. She did a couple different sizes, some normal egg sized (3.5 oz, almost exactly) and others slightly under thumb sized (around 1.25 oz). Aside from being semi-crumbly and soft, the mortar rounds came out really well. To me, I consider the ideal sling projectile weight to be about 3-4 oz, so the fact that the large ones came out @ 3.5oz, is spectacular. I'd mentioned doing this sort of thing in conversation with her one time, and apparently, she thought she'd go and surprise me! And surprise me she did! My girlfriend makes sling ammunition for me. I knew there was something special about her when I met her... ;)Also included is a picture of Goliath, the most recent braided sling, I made from Jute cordage. It's a nice split pocket design on which I've done a bit of weaving at both pocket ends to close the pocket a bit, but still allows me to throw projectiles as big as softballs, provided they don't slip out of the sling.

On second thought, since the photos are so huge and bound to cause merry hell with someone's computer, I'm just going to include the links.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk200/Jackcordial/Picture.jpg -small ammo
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk200/Jackcordial/Picture004.jpg -lg. ammo
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk200/Jackcordial/Picture002.jpg -all ammo
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk200/Jackcordial/Picture001.jpg -Goliath

Those look really great, talk about having a great girlfirend!  I've been considering using an easter egg as a mold, but I just found a small plastic football that I'm going to try first.  What kind of consistancy did she mix the mortar to?  I had also thought about casting with chunks of iron or lead in the middle to add weight, suspended in the middle with wire to make sure it doesn't throw off the ballance on the projectile.  We'll see how that goes.  

dream girl  8-)

I have like 50 concrete eggs laying around my room hehe

This is a link to cement molding posted a while ago: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1196999458/0#0
I found out that covering prototype form in candle wax (dipping it in melted hot candle wax) till about 1-3 mm of thickness is the way to go.
When prototype glande covered with wax has stayed long enough in cement form "cups". I put it into oven to melt wax. So top bottom and prototype gland could be separated.
Than you can reuse cement gland prototype. But gluing 2 parts together (of gland prototype) requires glues that does not melt in high temperature.

http://pusinskas.com/slinging/glandes_125468.jpg

This was my arsenal of glandes :) Coloring helps finding them on green grass. If they do not dig to deep to ground :)
In future I'm planing to put all this cement "molding" process on YouTube, but I still need to perfect the process of making.

;D

Your GF is a keeper.

Nice sling and glandes.

Coenie

WHAT A WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does she have any sisters? :)

Slingermedia wrote on May 13^th, 2008 at 2:28am:

This was my arsenal of glandes :) Coloring helps finding them on green grass.

What the heck is that most bottom one in your pic??? It confuses me a lot :-?

JustKnot wrote on May 13^th, 2008 at 6:49am:

Slingermedia wrote on May 13th, 2008 at 2:28am: This was my arsenal of glandes :) Coloring helps finding them on green grass. What the heck is that most bottom one in your pic??? It confuses me a lot :-?

Thats a training grenade :)

Your girlfriend sounds really cool. My girlfriend is interested in slinging, she is already making slings of her own, but she has yet to try them. She wants me to teach her. Your sling looks good too. I like the weaving on the ends of the pocket.

I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but I made a discovery (in my trash can) that brings me to revive it.  As I was preparing to take the trash out the other day, I noticed a large plastic mould sitting in the top.  My wife had been cleaning out the cabinets, and appearently she had a mould for making Jello eggs.  I can't believe she's been holding out on me like that :)  Anyway, they're about 2.25 inches long, and there are six to a mould with a large (.5") opening at the top.  Can't wait to try it and see how it works.  I should hopefully be able to this weekend, but we will see.  If all goes well then pictures will be coming shortly.

Well, the mold worked wonderfully.  The finished eggs are 2.5" long and 1.5" thick.  First off I sprayed the inside of the mold with WD-40 (it's all I had on hand), then I used a plasic bag with the corner cut out to squeeze the concrete through the hole in the top, and let it sit for two hours.  Presto, perfect egg.  Well, almost.  I didn't put enough WD-40 in the top, so a small piece broke off when I removed it, but other than that I didn't have any trouble.  I went this afternoon to sling one, and got it out to 190 yards on the first (and only... technically I was at work so I didn't linger) cast.  I'm not sure as to the weight of this thing, as I do not have a scale.  When I get one I will post the weight.

Here's a picture of the mold with an egg next to it

---

Maybe try silicone spray? I don't remember what the lubricant is in WD40, but if it's a petrochemical it may eat the plastic eventually. Silicone won't. This is presuming that the mold is really plastic and not silicone (some Jello Jigglers molds are made of silicone). DO NOT use silicone spray on anything made from silicone as the chemicals that keep the silicone in the spray liquid will dissolve "solid" silicone. Of course, unless you soak it in the stuff it will just mar the surface, but I suspect you'd lose the lubricant properties as well.

Hey Grubby that glande turned out great!! You did not tell me you tried it, that is a sweet distance. Where did you sling it at? Side note, Luke really wants to learn to Sling. I was showing off the "monster" to him today.

Quote:

I was showing off the "monster" to him today.

lol okay I know how this is going to sound - but could you show us the 'monster' (yeah yeah, lets not be childish here ;-)

How about a dry ptfe spray I've got some my mate 'found' at his place of work. Haven't used it yet but it's supposed to be very good. Might try it on the crocodile.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Jun 18^th, 2008 at 7:27am:

lol okay I know how this is going to sound - but could you show us the 'monster'

Well, that would be

  http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172017416/180#180

Brian,

Nice projectile. You have somewhere you can throw it 190yds and still find it? I envy you. Not that I have the trouble of throwing much that far ;).

Here are MammotHunter's pictures.  Always best to attach them to the thread - otherwise, when the link breaks, we loose the images forever.

http://www.slinging.org/images/MammotHunter/MammotHunterPicture.jpg

http://www.slinging.org/images/MammotHunter/MammotHunterPicture001.jpg

http://www.slinging.org/images/MammotHunter/MammotHunterPicture002.jpg

http://www.slinging.org/images/MammotHunter/MammotHunterPicture004.jpg

wanderer wrote on Jun 18^th, 2008 at 8:32am:

Brian, Nice projectile. You have somewhere you can throw it 190yds and still find it? I envy you. Not that I have the trouble of throwing much that far ;).

Yeah, I could get up to 250 or so... if I could sling it that far!  I'll get a picture of me slinging out there sometime.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Jun 18^th, 2008 at 7:27am:

Quote: I was showing off the "monster" to him today. lol okay I know how this is going to sound - but could you show us the 'monster' (yeah yeah, lets not be childish here ;-)

Ok ok I see how that might be taken wrong. Any way check it out on this thread, http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172017416/180. From now on I will proof read what I write a little better!

ah - wow 70 inches. Is that end to end or folded in half ?
cos if it's folded in half that'd be five foot ten. Monster indeed and too unwieldy for me to play with :-)

I think that is end to end... I think I would have remembered it that were the folded length!

I finally weighed one of my concrete eggs... 4oz is what it ended up as.  Not bad.

Interesting topic. Has anyone reported on using Fixall as a material? Another thought, how about adding food coloring or some such to the mix to produce a brightly colored, easier to find missile? Wouldn't wear off like paint.

That is a great idea, I am going to try that on my next batch.  What exactly is Fixall, and are you refering to using it for the projectiles?  

Well, here is what I found about it:

All-purpose powder repair material for plaster, stucco, wood, and concrete. Expands as it sets and will not shrink. May be sawn, drilled, or shaped. Sets hard in approximately 25 minutes. For interior use.

That is from a web site belonging to a building-materials store.  I still don't know what the stuff is, but I know what it is used for.  If it sets up hard enough, it might do.

Fixall is a patching material that comes in powder form. You mix it with water to make a paste. You patch holes with it, like spackle, but it's stronger. I think there are various formulations, not all of which are limited to interior applications. It gives off heat as it sets up, it that makes any difference. Not sure about its density versus concrete, mortar, plaster, etc.

Hello I'm new to the forum after looking at some of your ideas on making glandes I tried an idea I had get some of those easter eggs
the plastic ones that seperate drill ahole in the end get some concrete the finish kind no pebbles make it a little thin you can use a small
funnel to pour you can also tape it so it don't come apart I almost forgot put vaseline or oil inside let it sit up an take it apart it works.

Howard