Does anyone else here besides Pseudoswallo and me think that trebuchets are cool?

 

Pseudo, I've only made one, a real lousy thing cobbled out of whatever scraps I could find, with a 5-foot bamboo arm and a bent nail for an axle. But I managed to pitch a large softball into the third yard down, and the neighbors all thought I was nuts. Mission accomplished.

 

I have fantasies about making something better and larger, and dragging it about the neighborhood on hallowe'en dressed like a medeaval corpse collector, pitching fake heads down the street and hollering "bring out your dead".

yeah trebuchets are pretty cool.

 

This little linky will give you the mechanics behind the trebucet an will allow you to get the optimum design

 

i prefer cannons personally

Oh, boy, yes. I have a desktop version I keep in my office, along with other "armaments."

Yeah, two of my friends and I once built a large one (the fulcrum was six feet high) that threw basketballs pretty far. And yes, a good potato cannon will shoot a lot farther, but it's hard to load a severed head into one of those.

just make a bigger bore cannon. you'll have to have a considerable thickness to the barrel though and probably have to use something with a bit more oomph than butane. also having a closed combustion chamber unlike my current cannon which has a small opening to inject the butane.

The perfect thread! Yes!

 

Pseudo, I've only made one, a real lousy thing cobbled out of whatever scraps I could find, with a 5-foot bamboo arm and a bent nail for an axle. But I managed to pitch a large softball into the third yard down, and the neighbors all thought I was nuts. Mission accomplished.

 

That basicly describes my own, but a newer, bigger one is on the way. I used the treb simulator I found, and it should be able to toss things such as small pumpkins (about head weight!) for quite a distance. My other contraptions onclude:

A trebuchet used to throw gumdrops and rocks at sandcastles (I'm immature. So what?),

A paper trebuchet that I left out in the rain, and is in need of repair,

A small onager-balista combination (only a prototype, but both parts work simultaniously)

 

Yes, cannons make a loud noise, thus are fun, but not nearly as majestic as a trebuchet.

Also, swansont, Could you tell of these other "armaments?"

eruheru and I built one in our backyard. The fulrum is about 12 feet high, IIRC. The thing is really cool, and we want to build another one, but with more stable parts.

Also, swansont, Could you tell of these other "armaments?"

 

 

An inflatable Spiderman hammer and foam rockets. On order are a nunchuck (not the martial arts weapon; check the link) and a USB missile launcher (a colleague's R/C dirigible will be targeted )

That missle launcher looks truly excellent. An appropriate response to the mylar menace.

Ahh, yess...

I will be ordering much from Backyard Balistics, but that missile launcher... It looks good. The nunchuck is also funny (and thaks for reminding me to get back to Judo).

For all you medieval weapons fantasists, I recommend reading the thriller "High Citadel" by Desmond Bagley.

 

The situation : our heroes are trapped up an alpine road. Below them is a bridge crossing a canyon, that has been toppled. Across the ravine is a bunch of terrorists who are determined to build a bridge and come at them and kill them. Terrorists have all the usual modern weapons. Luckily for our heroes, their number includes a professor who knows medieval weapons, and an engineer who can build them. Let battle commence.

I built a pretty small trebuchet that launched walnuts. Really cool, much better than the lame mousetrap catapult I also built at the same time just for fun.

 

But seriously, I hope to build a ballista. Those things look awesome (and by awesome I mean deadly) and the projectiles they launch would look better than a round walnut (maybe nails or something sharp into the wall).

Haven't built one (yet) but I love all things medieval and all things ballistic.

 

I will as soon as I get a chance haha.

I tried to build a balista once...

what a miserable faliure. It was less effective than the pine-branch bows I made at 8. However, if you should make it work, I'd love to hear about it.