help building a trebechet..

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-05-15 02:11am

not a big one just a small display working modle....

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2006-05-15 02:43am

Just google it.

I've built a small wooden one, and am considering building one made out of PVC since according to some people, it is much easier to work with.

Here is a site where one of my colleagues built his off of:
http://www.rlt.com/trebuchet/plans/pvc/

I'm pretty sure you can attach a swinging counterweight on that thing without much hassle.

Coalition · Post by **Coalition** » 2006-05-15 03:49am

http://www.x-tremegeek.com/templates/se ... ctID=11354

Trbuchet plans and parts. Just $30.00 (US) plus tax and shipping.

Have fun looking at the rest of the site too. Plants that go ~40-50 years between watering, air bazookas, gaming keyboards of all types, 3-D ant farm that never needs water or food added, plus more.

lPeregrine · Post by **lPeregrine** » 2006-05-15 04:29am

I've done it, it's really easy. Absurdly easy if you just want a working model, and don't care about getting absolute maximum efficiency. Google some images, build something aproximately like them. The only difficult part is getting the sling release pin mounted at the right angle, and that's just a matter of trial and error.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-05-15 04:33am

did some googling sounds like the summer project is on....

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2006-05-22 06:33am

First:

Fuck you for giving me the idea...

Second:

Thank you for giving me the idea...

Well, while I was torturing myself through the songcontest, while waiting for lordi (and bitching about the lame fucks who TRIED to sing some lame songs in the meantime, ok, 2 or three were acceptable.. out of ~30!!!!)

I built a 1:20 scale trebuchet :d

20 inch arm, ~30 inch total height.

Cherrys would be the optimal ammo, I tried some sweets(indoor use) and pebbles(outdoor) for ammo, the "Haribo Dinosaurs" actually flew about 20 meters

All done during the song contest. I only have to put the release mechanism onto that thingy, and it is finished.

First shot was fired while Lordi sang!!! It's the "Desktop-Lordichet"!!!
(Maybe I'll email this to the lordy fansite

)

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-05-22 07:31am

SDN seige weapons group, peace through superior firepower...

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2006-05-22 09:52am

I applied for the HAB a few weeks before, but with no reply.. maybe I will be considered worthy now, having a 1/16 r/c full option MARS launcher and a trebuchet..

Maybe I should start a SDN medieval warfare group...

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-05-22 01:23pm

Dammit, now I want to build one...

Let's have a contest! Provide pictures and report distances projectiles have travelled. Something like that!

Now I just need to get one together.

And well done LaCroix!

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2006-05-22 10:28pm

FSTargetDrone wrote:Dammit, now I want to build one...

Let's have a contest! Provide pictures and report distances projectiles have travelled. Something like that!

Now I just need to get one together.

And well done LaCroix!

Some friends of mine actually built one. You can see the it here along with a bunch of toher cool projects. They managed to fling a water balloon 230ft, which was a lot more impressive than the trebuchet once I helped build. I think 15-20ft was our best.

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2006-05-23 05:21am

Some data, so we con compare:

my counterweight is 2 pounds (910 gramms, I need such a weight for arrowmaking)) and the arm has 20 inch lenght.

I still have to make a chart on pebble weight vs range

Maybe we should create Trebuchet-classes, so we can compare designs.

Btw. I will attach wheels sometimes later. Trebuches fire even farther when placed on wheels. (Some strange efficiency thing, the motion of the whole Trebuchet while firing provides extra acceleration for the sling or something)

Important things:

The lenght of he sling will be important to range, I believe to remember that they aimed by altering the sling lenght correlating to the estimated ammo weight (thats where the engineers emerged, the people who knew enough math to aim a trebuchet with projectiles of different weights aka "that large rock over there")

The second image should have been this one, I didn't notice it when I posted...

You can see the hook in the arm, firmly anchored...

The angle of that hook is also crucial for maximizing throwing range.

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LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2006-05-23 05:23am

Ok, I am officially to fucking stupid to post pictures...

Shadowhawk · Post by **Shadowhawk** » 2006-05-28 02:06am

I've built 4 trebuchets. The first was a beefy wooden one with a ~18" throwing arm and a baby food jar full of BBs for a counterweight for a project in history class (I should still have it out in the garage somewhere). It could throw a water-filled pingpong ball about 10 feet.
Two were Lego (the first one was great, the second one, rebuilt after a disassembly, was too spindly), but never had much counterweight and didn't throw things very well.
The fourth was a big one with 8-10' high uprights a friend and I built for our 12th grade physics project, with a plastic 55 gallon water barrel for a counterweight. Worked well when we tested it at his house (threw firewood 150-200 feet), and worked once at school (nearly sent a 3 pound block of wood into a portable!), but then we filled the barrel too much, and the metal crossbar pipe couldn't take the load at the end of the swing and it collapsed. We had problems with the ropes melting through the barrel's tie-downs, too. The construction was shoddy and the materials were all old and salvaged, but damned if it wasn't fun.