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Galleries: Newer | Older | Action Shots | Video |
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Galleries: Newer | Older | Action Shots | Video |
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The galleries contain some scans made by placing boomerangs directly on my scanner. This was a huge chore because the boomerangs are too large to fit completely on the scanner, so I have to do them in 2 or 3 sections and then cut-and-paste the pieces together in a paint program. Please note that these pictures are not to scale because of the way I sized them to (hopefully) fit in a web browser.
Most of my better boomerangs have my signature and the date I completed it. When it was available, I included the date.
I used to have names for the different models like "The Osprey", "The Harrier", "The Raptor", "Fast Catch II", "The Orbitron", etc., but I honestly can't remember which boomerang had which name. I used to have a DBS website on AOL that had the names, but that stuff was lost to the bit-bucket years ago. Maybe I'll name everything again someday...
Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.
| Name | Picture | Date | Description |
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6/12/94 | I'll start this list with my best. This model is the most consistent and beautiful
flyer I've ever seen. I've made this design a few times, and it is excellent every time. Right now, I have two that are identical right
down to the paint jobs and I may assault some of the doubling or
juggling records with them some day.
My Super-Long-Distance model is also based on this design, but with lead weights added to the tips. |
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8/30/93 | One of my first boomerangs after I got really good with a spray-paint can. It flies well, too. This and the one below are what I set my juggling and two-in-the-air records with. | |
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9/9/93 | The juggling partner of the boomerang directly above. Though they are shaped differently, they have very similar flight paths and ranges. Notice that this color scheme is the inverse of that one. | |
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3/29/94 | I call this one "The Cheater". That's because even though it
looks like a two-blader, the elbow is also beveled into a wing to give
it the super-stability of a three-blader. It makes a really
tight loop and is excellent for those all-too-rare days with no wind.
I would also like to point out that the paint job was done at the height of my spray-paint skills. I was thinking about getting an airbrush kit for paint jobs, but when you can do something like this with simple cans of spray paint, who needs an airbrush? (I also wonder who needs a lesson in humility.) |
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7/5/93 | I made this tiny (~6" on any side) fast-flying boomerang from a leftover wood-scrap. It flew so well, that I decided to give it a nice paint job. I copied the paint job from a huge boomerang a friend of mine brought back from Australia. See The Pilip Connection. | |
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6/12/94 | One of my prettier models. This was made at the height of mine and
Michelle's arts-and-crafts product experimentation. It is covered with a
metallic-gold spider-web stuff that was sprayed out of a can. There is a
coat of polyurethane over that weird stuff.
Ah, but can it fly? On a good throw, it presents a perfect circle to reach into for an easy one-handed catch. |
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The Maximum Time Aloft boomerang or "MTA" made from a plan in a book. This boomerang is large, but extremely light. It is made from 1/8" plywood and is designed to stay in the air as long as possible. It is supposed to catch thermals and rise higher as it spins. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find thermals around Dallas. My record with this one is around 19 seconds. Pretty pitiful considering there are verified accounts of MTAs staying up for minutes at a time! | ||
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6/12/94 | This lopsided model was meant to be the mirror image of how it turned
out, but when I cut out the blank, it had a slight bow/warp forcing me to
either make a left-handed model or a mirror image of what I had planned.
Most people throw holding one tip and pointing the other tip forward.
With this one, you either have to hold it by the shorter end for that,
or throw it "backwards".
Fortunately this one turned out to be an excellent flyer and I have set some personal records with it. |
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8/3/93 | "The Perfect Parabola" -- I plotted a parabola on a piece of
paper and based a boomerang on it. This is one of my old favorites and
it had an excellent, smooth flight pattern, but unfortunately it got broken by somebody.
Its pretty enough
that I kept the broken pieces.
An interesting aside about this boomerang: I used a program called GNU-Plot to create my parabola. This program is distributed for free under the GNU public license. A certain individual (who shall remain nameless) told me that any works resulting from using GNU software would become public domain also. Basically, he tried to convince me that I would have to give the boomerangs from this plan away for free. |
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My only attempt at a lap-joint boomerang. Look at the large version and examine the elbow. It's basically two sticks glued together. It seems sturdy enough, but I don't throw this one much. (Honestly, I'm not sure if "lap-joint" is the correct term or not, but it sounds cool.) [Not true. The "T-Rang" on the Tauhert Page is also a lap-joint.] | ||
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x/x/99
(or was it 2000?) |
I made this 3-blader as a gift for my young nephew, Cameron. I scanned it
in before painting it. I can't remember what the paint job looked
like, but I'm sure it was brilliant.
A good 3-blader looks like a remote-controlled hovercraft when it flies. This hole-in-the-middle style is great for crowd-thrilling one-finger catches. These keep-it-spinning-by-putting-your-finger-through-the-hole catches are high-risk and high-reward. The risk is if you miss the hole, you'll feel like you stuck your finger in a buzz-saw. The reward is that you look cool if you do catch it spinning on your finger. |
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| SpindleBoom |  |
This 3-blader has a dowel through its center so you can catch it spinning in the palm of your hand. This is easier to do than catch the 3-blader above on one finger. It looks really cool and it can spin like a top for several seconds. Unfortunately, a poor throw can easily break the dowel. This one has been replaced a couple of times and the bottom half is currently broken off. (This is a shot of the top of the rang.) | |
| Lamda Boom |  |
4/2003 | This was one of those "what can I make from this off-shaped left-over piece of wood?" boomerangs. Also it was my first experiment with some Rustoleum "Metallic Blue" spray paint. Click the image to zoom in and see the metallic gleam. |
| Wood-Savers |  |
4/26/03 | 3 light-weight boomerangs from 1 piece of 3mm plywood. |
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More to come someday...
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