Despite how it might appear in bad action movies, throwing a knife and making it stick in a target is no easy feat. Taking inspiration from the aforementioned movies, [Quint] and his son built a magazine-fed knife throwing machine, capable of sticking a knife at any distance within its range.

Throwing a sharp piece of metal with a machine isn’t that hard, but timing the spin to hit the target point-first is a real challenge. To achieve this, [Quint] used a pair of high-performance servo motors to drive a pair of parallel timing belts. Mounting a carriage with a rotating knife-holder between the belts allows for a spinning throw by running one belt slightly faster. The carriage slides on a pair of copper rails, which also provide power to the knife holder via a couple of repurposed carbon motor brushes.

At first, the knife holder was an electromagnet, but it couldn’t reliably hold or release the stainless steel throwing knives. This was changed to a solenoid-driven mechanism that locks into slots machined into the knives. Knives are fed automatically from a spring-loaded magazine at the back as long as the trigger is held down, technically making it full-auto. To match the spin rate to the throwing distance, a LIDAR sensor is used to measure the distance, which also adjusts the angle of the aiming laser to compensate for the knife’s trajectory.

The development process was fraught with frustration, failure, and danger. Unreliable knife holders, exploding carriages, and faulty electronics that seemingly fired of their own accord were all challenges that needed to be overcome. However, the result is a machine that can both throw knives and nurture a kid’s passion for building and programming.

Over-engineered, impractical projectile weapons tend to make rather entertaining projects. We’ve covered everything from automated airsoft sentry turrets, to an iced tea launcher and even a supersonic baseball cannon.

Bringing the knife to a gun fight

Why did he put the lid on the other guys head? The lid would make a good improvised shield.

Just don’t let Alec Baldwin any where near it!

I never watch these build videos, almost all of them are either dumbed down so far it’s painful, or so technical that it’s hard to follow without specialized knowledge. This video covered not just an interesting topic but avoided both flaws I mentioned. I am flat out in awe of the project, and enjoyed the entire video.

+1 and what a great Dad!

that would totally be classified as a weapon in Poland as definition is someting along “device that is able to eject projectiles with kinetic energy greater than 17J”

Awesome nevertheless. Just a word of warning for followers…

Great project and amazing build! But, um, shooting sharp objects in the direction of your neighbor’s backyard seems a bit irresponsible. Only takes a fumble or mechanical failure to miss the target by 1ft vertically and send those knives right over the fence.

Depends on your relationship with your neighbors…

Here in Holland a guy was killed recently by a metal ball thrown over a hedge in the Highland games…

Highland Games? Aren’t they held in Scotland? I know the Scots are strong, but I had no idea! B^)

They were getting ready for Rollerball.

Surely in Nederland, it should be the Lowland games? ;-)

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