How to make a real life web shooter

The last time we checked in with JT from the YouTube channel Built IRL they had successfully created a working version of Batman’s grappling gun. But the Dark Knight wasn’t the only superhero they wanted to emulate, and this time they’ve managed to recreate Spider-Man’s web slingers. They’re not quite a perfect copy—no radioactive spiders were involved—but the results are still the best we’ve seen to date.

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As with most of the gadgetry our favorite superheroes rely on, Peter Parker’s web slingers (at least the mechanical kind, not the organic ones growing out of his wrists) simply can’t exist in real life exactly as they appear in comic books and movies. Special effects artists do most of the heavy lifting that makes Spider-Man appear to effortlessly swing from building to building on the big screen, but talented mechanical engineers like JT are inching us closer and closer to making that fantasy a reality.

JT has made previous attempts to create IRL web slingers, but the results were incredibly complex involving backpack air compressors, wrist-worn launchers, spools of high-strength cable, and complex touch-sensitive Spidey gloves allowing the mechanisms to be operated using finger and wrist taps. It was nowhere near as elegant as the hardware the ‘real’ Spider-Man uses, and nowhere near as safe, which was especially problematic for JT who lacks super strength and any superpowers.

Their latest attempt simplifies the hardware dramatically. Instead of launching a cable with a grappling hook on the end that can be mechanically wound back in to facilitate the subsequent swings, JT created a simple metal tube, powered by compressed propane and a custom-designed igniter, that would launch a long cable embedded with metal hooks that could secure itself when wrapped around a metal beam.

The use of mild explosives meant the web-shooters had to be refilled using a special machine between each use, which isn’t really an option mid-swing. So JT instead built seven of the launchers in total, allowing him to wear several of them on a belt and switch between them from swing to swing. That’s easier said than done, however, and after a week spent training at an indoor trampoline facility with lots of soft places to safely fall, JT managed to complete two-and-a-half swings from the building’s metal rafters before landing back on the ground on his feet.

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It might not be as slick as what Tom Holland appears to do in the Marvel movies (most of the time it’s actually a CG stunt double doing the incredible aerial aerobatics) but watching JT do it, and knowing he’s a real human (plus that dramatic landing at the end) makes this creation all the more impressive.

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San Francisco, CA project created by Abel Melecio

I want to make something happen that most people wouldnt think of and dont have the motives to do or try. I want to make a real life webbing like in the new Spider-Man Movie. Make it shoot out from a mechanism on your wrist and have it stick and not come off so easily. Something cool to show people, that I actually did it.
The way Ill do this is with nylon, or silk. And something to make it stick. With Nylon it has to basic chemicals to make it. Hexamethylenediamine and sebacoyl chloride. If the Hexamethylenediamine is to be poured into a glass and then put sebacoyl chloride ontop and with tweezers stick it into the formula you can extract nylon right there and roll it onto or around anything. My plan is to add a surfactant (what is used in silly string to make it stick) so it can stick.
But that's just the beginning. I will make some kind web shooter similar to the one in the movie. I will also need to put the whole formula into some kind of cartridge and pressurize it. There will be some sort of propellant to force the fluid out and a trigger on the web shooter that i will press and what happens is it'll be like the same way a gun shoots. Itll hit the cartdridge and the web will shoot out like a bullet. A firing pin will hit the cartridge and the cartidge will release the fluid at a good speed because of the high pressure causing it to go from a liquid to a solid.

I hope you'll give me the chance to go through with this project. It has been almost 2 years that I have wanted to do this but money was always the problem and how. I will work alongside with the chemistry teacher if you guys will give me this oppurtunity. I wont let The Awesome Foundation down if you give me a chance! Thank you.

P.S The picture i put arent mine just very similar ideas

Funded by San Francisco, CA (April 2013)