trebuchets

[chilehed]

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".

[insane_alien]

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

[swansont]

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

[Sisyphus]

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.

[insane_alien]

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.

[Pseudoswallo]

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?"

[ecoli]

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.

[swansont]

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 )

[Sisyphus]

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

[Pseudoswallo]

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).

[SkepticLance]

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.

[The Thing]

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).

[calbiterol]

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.

[Pseudoswallo]

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.