Project: Comic-Accurate Spider-Man Web Shooters
For the very first week of How to Make (Almost) Anything, I wanted to start off with a project that would both give me exposure to CAD in Fusion 360 and revisit a childhood fantasy. What that meant was an attempt at making comic-accurate Spider-Man web shooters.
The movies have some great web shooters, but we have yet to see one that resembles the original comic form factor, namely a long metal forearm guard which contains room for web cartridges and then a metal plate that extends out to the palm for trigger action. Below are two comic panels to give a better sense of what I mean:
Process
I first measured the circumference of my arm along different parts of a 20cm-long stretch. I found that at the narrow part lined up against the wrist, it was 16cm around, while the circle closer to my elbow was 23cm around. Not only was this taper needed, but the two shapes were not "similar" (in a geometric sense). They were actually ellipses, with the one closer to the wrist being 7cm across the major axis and 5cm across the minor axis. For the ellipse closer to the elbow, it was 9cm major axis and 8cm minor axis. This meant the contraption was not meant to be slipped on, but rather it would hinge open and close along the length.
Fusion 360 Design
In Fusion 360, I lofted these two ellipses, one on the XY plane and another offset by 20cm along the Z-axis. Then, I used the following steps:
- Embossed 2mm on the gauntlet.
- Added a 1mm fillet to the inset of the gauntlet for the web cartridge holders.
- Split the body along the XY plane.
- Offset the XY plane by -100mm to create curved loft guard rails.
- Constrained coincidence lines on the parallel ellipses of the trigger action.
- Used Create > Project Coincidence to attach the guard rails for curved lofting.
- Sweeped a faucet-type shape to raise the trigger up to the wrist.
Below are the different views of the design in Fusion 360:
Challenges and Next Steps
Unfortunately, this process took longer than expected as I'm still fairly new to CAD. I would have liked to add the hinge mechanism and a spring system to attach the trigger piece to the arm guard. This would involve using a small metal axle and a spring that triggers some electrical conduction (like a switch) when compressed, which would cause the web to shoot out.
Reflection
This week, I learned a lot about parametric design and how useful it can be in creating adjustable, intricate designs. It was challenging but rewarding to stay true to the comic design while working within the constraints of CAD software. Iām looking forward to applying these skills in future projects!
Next Week: Sword Making ā