Now that I’ve spent a couple of days boring you to tears talking webmaster stuff, I thought I’d shift gears and talk about something near and dear to every man’s heart. Catapults.
At last year’s annual camping trip, I decided that what we needed was our very own trebuchet. Unfortunately, this past spring I was busy building the tadpoles a swingset/playhouse. However, it wasn’t just any swingset. It was a small palace. It was the swingset of the gods. While I feel like this construction effort did toughen me up for challenge ahead, it was rather time consuming. Thus it’s now mid-September and I haven’t started construction.
However, I have been doing some research that I thought I’d share with you. Much like my sidewalk of horror, I will be documenting this project in more detail as construction actually begins.
To start, I did what any 21 century person would do. I consulted the Oracle internet. At first pass, what I found was disappointing. Without much difficulty, you can find books and plans for building desktop model trebuchets. Finding anything on half-scale or full-scale models is another matter entirely. It also seems like everyone wants to sell you their kits or plans.
However, even looking at the pictures of models on their sites can give us important clues for construction. One common feature among most designs is a pair of A frame supports. Okay, that’s easy enough. Of course, there’s also always an arm, weighted end, and sling. I suspect one of the more difficult parts of this project will be the trigger system. Needless to say, safety is my #1 concern (flinging sh*t really far being my #2 concern). I want something that will allow me to fire this sucker from 10 feet–or more–away.
To be honest, I only found some of these links a few nights ago and haven’t had a chance to look them over in detail. However, I like some aspects of this guy’s desktop model. In theory the extra holes for adjusting the arm sound like a great idea, but I’d be worried about weakening the arm. It may be fine for flinging golf balls, but I’m looking at something capable of throwing a small pumpkin.
Then there’s the “algorithmic beauty of trebuchets “. I have a feeling my head is going to hurt by the time this is over.
You’ll notice on the trebuchet.com site that they have a book called The Art of Catapult. I actually picked up that book at the library, but I was disappointed by the trebuchet plans. While it’s fine for a golf ball flinger, the design is way too unstable for a man-size model. On the other hand, if you visit the author’s website, you’ll see that we’re on our way to more helpful information. But it gets better. Unfortunately, the construction documented on his personal site is a little too authentic. Mine doesn’t have to be that historically accurate or even pretty.
I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I’ll definitely keep everyone updated as this project comes together. My buddy and I will probably build a knee-high model to work out the design kinks, then we’ll scale it up to a shoulder-high version. All of this will most likely take place in the next month to month and a half, since the annual camping trip will be happening sometime later this Fall after the weather has cooled off.
If you have any trebuchet related links–especially building plans, etc., I’d welcome any suggestions.
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