build a trebuchet

My friend Dave and I have spent a few hours on one so far. It’s only a couple of feet tall, but it’s a practice build for when we make a bigger one.

We need a decent counter-weight and a decent holder for the thing we’re going to fire. Those are things that we can work on pretty quickly, I would have thought.

We built one that threw a golf ball 138 feet. That was with the release mechanism not working properly.

We’ve developed a concept for a fool-proof release. I think that we should be able to hurl a golf ball at least 500 feet once we get it perfected.

Something to lob m&m’s over the cubicle wall with.

_{after I finish building those amnday bunk-beds.}

i just finished my trebuchet for my physics project last week! it was pretty cool, considering my partner (who had no building skills at all) and i built it in a day with really crappy supplies. but it still shot 36 meters, so woohoo!
trebuchets rock!

my model is very elegant looking

I have to make a trebuchet for my final in advanced physics and it’s harder than it sounds. Swinging arms, counterweights, and electrical saws are just not me. But I’ll get through it and succeed like I always do.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdqWUKfLzZk

I built one in celebration of my thirtieth birthday. It was 8 feet tall and we used about 680 lbs of countereweight. We were getting 10 lb objects over 200 feet. Here is the website I made about it with video. http://home.cinci.rr.com/catapultparty/
If you have ever wanted to build one, just do it. If you are worried about getting it right, go to the library and take out the video “Medieval Siege” its an episode of Nova that I just watched and it really boosted my confidence to know that these guys who are experts ran into most of the same problems that I did in the design and testing. Because to be honest, we’re all just guessing. Go here for some simulators that helped me with axle placement, sling length and counterweight. http://www.ripcord.ws/simulators.html Cheers and good luck. A.

HAHA! Actually got together with a co-worker, and we’re building the damn thing! It’s got a throwing arm of about 7 feet, so we’re pretty optimistic about how far we’ll be able to heave pumpkins and small children.

Just finished my first (and small) trebuchet. Its about 8 inches long and about 6 inches tall. It can hurl pebbles anywhere between 20-50 feet depending on various conditions. The hardest part was tying the various knots required for the sling and release pin. It took me just over a day to complete (due to some wood glue drying). Hopefulyl next summer I will build a larger scale one…perhaps 8 foot long this time.