Floating Arm Trebuchet

[Lordbob75]

Just curious as to who would be interested:

I am building a Floating Arm Trebuchet (FAT) for physics class (only a small one... )
Anyone interested in seeing pictures of the build as it progresses, and a video/pictures and stats of it firing?

~Lordbob

 

[patio]

Absolutely ! !

What scale ? ?

 

[Lordbob75]

Absolutely ! !

What scale ? ?

Cool.

It is only a meter tall (max), and throws golf balls....
*Boring*

I may make a bigger one later, but I would need my mech engineering teacher to approve me using that much of his steel, and his help. But it would be fun.

Either way, building a meter tall one is good because I can keep it.

I have to have my plans drawn up by Friday (the 22nd), but I am going to start (and finish?) then tonight.

NOTE: Free FAT plans do not exist on the internet. Mine will mostly be bullshitted, but I am basing the plan off dimensions from the one on this site:
http://www.trebuchet.com/10101
I wrote them down on a little sticky note, which turns out to be all I need for a plan, and I showed it to my Mech Engineering teacher who glanced at it and said they looked good. The irony is my physics teacher (who this project is for) wants detailed, to scale plans, from every angle.
All I need is a sticky note with a few crappy drawings....

~Lordbob

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Lordbob. I know this is an old thread. But did you ever post the pictures? I don't see any reference to them. We built one and have recently been tweaking it for arm drop ratio and sling length. We get awesome distance but we are trying to max it out. Our ratios were all designed based on screen caps of videos.

 

[boohbah]

unfortunately lordbob is no longer with us , he suffered a fatal blow to the temple from a golf ball.

 

[boohbah]

hahah only joking ,
this is the chillout room ,
beware of the trolls,
welcome to the forum

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

You scared me there! I was hoping he had some pictures. We are trying to link to others on our site where we have some free downloadable plans in sketchup and we like to highlight others that have built a treb as well as looking at everything that is out there to compare designs. Especially the floating arm trebuchets. We have been throwing tennis balls loaded with BB shot, but our next projectiles are golf balls and pool balls as soon as we redesign our arm. So we have been looking up forum posts and responding to see what others have done.

Awesome sig btw!

 

[boohbah]

thanks, i will leave a link to your posts on lordbobs homepage for you, hes not been here for a few weeks, busy with school stuff probably.

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks boohbah. I really appreciate the help! I'd put in a link to our site. But I think forums rule #3 prohibits that unless I'm reading it wrong. We don't sell anything, but we get tons of email and I think the more links we have the more people will be able to find out about the tiny bits on construction. If Lordbob gets back to me I can always PM him with the URL to see if he is cool with us linking to his stuff.

I didn't expect to see something like this on sevenforums. I hit it all the time for help on stuff. Most recent was some Win Mobile 6.5 development issues . Great forum.

 

[boohbah]

i think you would be ok posting a link to your site, its not like you are trying to sell us a trebouchet , plus there were a few interested members in lordbobs construction. so would likely be interested in yours.
if for some reason the link isnt ok then the worst that will happen is it will be taken down.

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks boobhah. It is at Floating Arm Trebuchet Plans Download

There are 4 pages that detail the construction and also a google sketchup download right under the graphic of the trebuchet so people can get the dimensions. After we finish checking out other people's stuff we were thinking about making another set of plans where the center wheel is closer to the drop as we are finding that the design seems to be moving towards brutal drops by moving the center wheel closer to the top and using shorter arms.

My son did the design and built most of it. I was just there to offer advice for construction and to make sure he still had all his fingers after using the tablesaw and router.

 

[Thorsen]

unfortunately lordbob is no longer with us , he suffered a fatal blow to the temple from a golf ball.

:roflmao:

That was spot on. Thanks boohbah for that....

 

[boohbah]

Thanks boobhah. It is at Floating Arm Trebuchet Plans Download

There are 4 pages that detail the construction and also a google sketchup download right under the graphic of the trebuchet so people can get the dimensions. After we finish checking out other people's stuff we were thinking about making another set of plans where the center wheel is closer to the drop as we are finding that the design seems to be moving towards brutal drops by moving the center wheel closer to the top and using shorter arms.

My son did the design and built most of it. I was just there to offer advice for construction and to make sure he still had all his fingers after using the tablesaw and router.

nice job on the construction ,looks good, needs a video of it in action.

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks for the positive comments! We do have a video. We originally posted on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVk3ASn7nWU but got a lot of questions so I set it up a site as a subdomain on my Welcome to HowToPool.com's home site, but it is about billiard table restoration / repair so not the greatest name for the trebuchet stuff. There is a link on the trebuchet site to the youtube video as well.

My apologies about the shakey vid, but it was super windy that day and I suck at filming.

 

[boohbah]

no worries, iv'e embedded it for you.

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

You Rock! And again... apologies for my lack of camera skills. When we fire the pool ball and the golf ball I plan on using a tripod.

 

[boohbah]

 

[Trucidation]

Don't forget the jock cups! You definitely don't want to forget the jock cups...

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Hardhat and cup will probably be crucial if we fire off the pool ball. We need to test in a larger location next time.

 

[Lordbob75]

I think forgot about this forum is a more accurate description of my life atm, but I have been hellishly busy.

I built that thing like 3 years ago and have since moved (it's residing in my parents garage atm), so I have no pictures of it.

It was rather small and unexciting anyways, and I never did get the wheels fixed correctly on it (never found a good axel).

Sorry about that, but good luck with your site. One of these days I might have to actually build a good one and launch flaming pumpkins with it.