My sons have been asking for a trebuchet for a long time. I saw a project by another woodworker and I decided that it was the one. I like the idea that it is a dedicated TENNIS BALL trebuchet. That means that we should not be flinging eggs, tomatoes, chickens, the cat… We will see.
The trebuchet was completed yesterday, Christmas day. It was not a surprise because my sons had been helping me with it all along. It was completed at about 4:00 and we had to try it out. But, it was a bit cold and starting to get dark. It was obvious that it still needed some fine tuning, so we decided to continue today.
The key to getting good results is the angle of the brad at the end of the arm that controls when the projectile will be released. It took me a while to figure out that I was also having trouble because the brad that I used had too big of a head on it - filing the head off was one of the big breakthroughs.
For the counterweight, I am using 20 pounds from an old weight set.
Posted elsewhere Dec 26, 2011. As an update, this got a lot of use. No people, animals, or buildings were harmed. In the original post, an out-of-control lawyer warned me that I could be jailed for building such a siege weapon. Surprisingly, that did not happen either. We found that it worked very well with a baseball.
“Fake quotes will ruin the internet” — Benjamin Franklin
Are the plans available... wouldn't mind a scaled down one... laser cut out of MDF... to toss wads of chewed paper at SWMBO while I make my retreat for one of my many indiscretions.
The 4 shot, auto load, rubber band gun is poor defence, against a rampaging SWMBO... and hell is to pay if I accidentally hit her shoes when I go for a leg shot!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Big fun at the launchpad, Best Dad award winner here.
Larry flinging beagles is big fun. At the moment of launch their eyes get really BIG, then the hit, roll, and crash, then come running back for another launch.... Try it you'll like it. JK...
Very cool. Way better that cheap plastic toys I'm thinking it could work well flinging cherry bombs but you'd have to be out in the country for that. It might rile the neighbors when their windows rattled....The kid is coming out in me!
..Cheers, Jim
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
Are the plans available... wouldn't mind a scaled down one... laser cut out of MDF... to toss wads of chewed paper at SWMBO while I make my retreat for one of my many indiscretions.
Ducky - I hesitate to become involved in the details of another person's marital bliss. I purchased paper plans that were very good. I don't see them around the house right now and don't remember where I got them. Now, 11 years later, I would probably use some of the free plans that are available.
This is the legalese to protect me in case things go bad:
“Fake quotes will ruin the internet” — Benjamin Franklin
Looks like the yard has lots of "soft" targets that need to be taken out. I agree with the desire to enhance the payloads, you never know when the squirrel army will attack.
Chucky, I did an internet search a while back when I came across another catapault (couldn't spell trebuchet... still cant...), and came up with a design I thought I could laser cut and laminated out of 6mm MDF, but never got to execute due to size vs my laser capacity. Just thought designing from plans that work could be an interesting project....
And now a POM tosses in another word I have to learn to spell... M_UK, was that name invented in the tropics for home delivery of mangos?
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
