by raprap » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:20 pm
.Built a few trebs in my time--one traditional (Warlock) design very much like yours. Powered by 40 pounds of weights, it could chunk a golf ball about 120 feet. My favorite though is a modern design from a NASA engineer (good to know the spacr programs dollars are well spent) that is known as a falling block trebuchet. Has a variable length lever arm and with about a 30 inch fall, 15 pounds can chunk a golf ball over 200 feet---very reproducible hurl, once zeroed it can hit a 6 inch target time after time. A third one I made uses bungees instead of weights, but it’s still a treb. Very compact, been thinking of mounting it on the roof of Dogtown Too to make her into a Tax Tear (avast Matey, I'm here to collect Taxes")
Have fun with yours, but be careful, there a lot of energy in that arm waiting to kerchunk any thing that gets in the way of the lever and sling. Oh, don't let anyone stand in the plane of the lever arm while hurling. The sling release is the weakest point on any treb, and an early sling release can hurl the chunk anywhere along the lever arm plane---so be sure to stand off to one side of the lever arm.
Good Hurling,
BTW eggs are nature’s perfect ammunition, but first practice with golf balls
Rap
Kentucky Pool Made a Fool out of me.
Instead of Tennessee River it looks like I'm headed to the deep blue sea.
JHartford