I recently built a small trebuchet with 1x2 lumber and 50 lbs of lead shot for counter weight, do you guys have any siege engines?

Try here.

http://members.iinet.com.au/~rmine/gctrebs.html

I have a small model perrier that works great

I've built several small seige engines out of things like pencils and spoons, and I have some plans drawn up for a large, full size battle arbalest (think of a crossbow not just on steroids, but also addicted to weightlifting as well and that's an arbalest) I've never done anything full size, so maybe one day, I can finally try it out.

I have made a small ballista that shoots penciles.


talk to castle7 he built a pretty big treb.

http://www.thehurl.org/tiki-browse_image.php?galleryId=32&sort_mode=created_asc&desp=14&offset=60&imageId=1115

msv

Well, me and guys started to build a trebuchet two weeks ago. There are eight of us building it, including me. It's going to be over 4 metres high and the counterweight is probaply going to be 50-150 kilos. We have just started it and are going to finish it in christmas holiday. I will post some pics when it's ready.

i have 2 baliistas one little and one big, one 4 foot trebuchet, a 6 inch trebuchet, and a knex trebuchet

nope :-)

Sorry that I haven't been here for a while.

About the trebuchet, most of us got bored in the project because we had some hard time findig enough materials and time too. Always someone was somewhere else than he should supposed to be and we didn't have enough workers building the trebuchet. One of the problems was that we couldn't find a good axle. It's quite hard to find a iron pole that is 5 cm (2 inches) thick and 1m (3 feet) long, and no one wanted to put money on the project more than 10€. Lack of interest and materials made the project fail (rainy weather and snow didn't help at all). Maybe we try again in summer when it's drier.  ;D

Out of curiosity I just tried building a torsion catapult out of a spoon and a clothes airer. I used only a single loop of packet cord. That was a mistake: as soon as I got it under tension it ripped apart at the knot. I will try it again later, now it is not the time of day to make a lot of noise in my flat (23:00).

A few years ago for the Scout klondike, I helped my troop lash togeter the dorkiest looking perrier you ever saw. It was about 8 feet tall with a 12 foot arm.  They thought it would never work. Well, we came in second. We would have come in first, but we were firing up a steep hill, something they didn't tell us.
  There were quite a few troops that made nice lookin torsion catapults, but didn't know you cant leave them outside to get wet, or the rope will stretch .
Of course, I could have told them that, but....

My SCA household made a hand-powered trebuchet several years ago. Was quite the rage for awhile. We tried to convert it to a genuine counterweighted version and never seemed to get the range we wanted. Very heavy to manuever (it was on wheels), so not as practical for a fluid battlefield situation. It was made from 4X4s and stoof about three meters high.

cool, another Scadian enters the fray. I'm from the Rhydderich Hael in AEthelmearc.

I'm from the Barony (and Kingdom) of Atenveldt.

"Warpup" hasn't made it to Estrella in a few; I'm going to bug our Head of Household on where we stand with it. Funny thing, he got cited from his HOA for having a "basketball hoop" in his backyard, since "it" stuck up over the fenceline.

He politely informed them that the CC&Rs had absolutely no prohibitions on siege engines. ;D

I have a small ballista and a ruber-band powered catapult, I'm planning on making a treb

one of these days im just gonna sit in my driveway and whip snowballs at people. it would be fun until the cops came. :( those cops always get in the way of fun. (sorry if anybody here is a cop)

For snowballs?! Or are you meaning ice balls? Ok, it might also depend on how many snowballs you launch at each person...

yeah, maybe if i lobbed at a guy for a half an hour while he tried to get close enough to kick my butt they would probably come. maybe not for snowball though. i agree. i always thought that in a snowball fight if they saw me miss even, theyd wet themselves and head for the hills. if i nailed some kid with a clump of slush at 50 yards theyd run faster.

With my friends, we built a small trebuchet this summer. The counterweight is cca. 60kg and the arm length  about 2.5m. It worked with stones a bit bigger than a human's fist, casting them to 40-60m, however, I am planning to make it more effective by shortening the release finger which slowed down the sling.

I got interested in trebuchets not long after I got interested in slings. Combination of cool machine and slings!! I have built a trebuchet out of PVC pipe and fittings. Planning on building a large scale one that I and a friend at work can mount on our flatbed truck. Get a couple spud cannons strapped to the sides and a trebuchet mounted on the bed and roll into battle.  Let me know if you’re interested. I have quite a bit of info I’ve gathered over the years.

Well, this thread is still going, I see. Good!

I've been working on a Whipper type trebuchet for a couple of years.
I'm taking my time 'cause I'm working alone and have to make it to be a completely one man show. I should be done in time to enter the Raleigh NC contest at Halloween, 2008.

The Whipper is 9 feet high at the axle and will have a 440 lb counterweight.
I'll be flinging 8 to 10 lb pumpkins at a car about 300 feet down range.
There's a $1,000.00 prize.

A mate of mine is working on building a trebuchet for throwing teddy bears at a local fete - I'll try and post pics or links when it happens.

http://www.eccentricgenius.ca/frameset.htm  

thought you guys might like to take a look at these, they're cute. Apparently he doesn't make them anymore, though.  

My fiance and I are considering building a ballista the next time we have garage space. Any tips on balancing/design of projectiles?

i made a treb a few weeks ago (well i actually finished it after working on it for three years :))
It's 3 meters high and has a counterweight of 60-140kg (depends on size of stones i'm about to launch).
and it can shoot with fairly decent accuracy at a range of 150m but full powered it can sling to 300m.
In winter i am goin to sling huge snowballs at the christmas parade 8-)
mhuhaaahaaaahaaa!
lol

My dad and me built a trebuchet a few years back, after experimenting we eventually got it working:-)

Here´s a tip though,DO NOT WALK IN FRONT WHEN FIRING!I don´t remember exactly what happend,but cracked my skull :-/

But good ehrm..safe fun ;D

Sora wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 1:06pm:

i made a treb a few weeks ago (well i actually finished it after working on it for three years :)) It's 3 meters high and has a counterweight of 60-140kg (depends on size of stones i'm about to launch). and it can shoot with fairly decent accuracy at a range of 150m but full powered it can sling to 300m. In winter i am goin to sling huge snowballs at the christmas parade 8-) mhuhaaahaaaahaaa! lol

Posting info like this with no pictures is just mental cruelty.

PICTURES PLEASE ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you consider as "decent accuracy"?
What size stones do you shoot?
How do you vary the counterweight?
Where do you shoot such a machine?
How much does it weigh and how do you transport it?
Any other "interesting" details.

Is it legal for you to use it?
(In Australia shooting such a device would probably get me a six months government sponsored holiday.)

Okay here's a pic (sorry for low quality, camera's still doing weird :-[)
with decent i mean it can hit  a 3 by 4 m blanket or something from about 120-150 m 6 out of 10 times  :)
size of stones is about tennis ball (smallest) to basketbal (biggest) sized stones
i vary the counterweigt by just putting some extra heavy stuff inthe crate and then lock that crate
my grandpa has got a reeaally big backyard where the treb stands and shoots (his backyard is about 400*500 m or something)
dunno how much it weighs and i never transported it (not even the wood, my grandpa had that lying around :))
well maybe not that interesting but i hurled a little tv away a couple of weeks ago...hehe ;D
and yes it's legal (i think...) because it's on a private terrain (grandpa's garden)
one note: the red lined one is mine and the blue lined one is my grandpa's one, again sorry for the quality...

---

Thanks for the photo and the quick response. Looks like great fun!

no problem aussieslinger :)
i'm also planning to make an onager and a lifesized ballista (without sharpened arrows ... well okay maybe with iron tips... okay okay they're gonna be sharpened so what  ::))

sharpened, serrated, barbed and loaded with impact explosive, oh wait isn't that a whale harpoon :-)

Did you know that in several american states the only animal it is legal to shoot from a moving vehicle is  a whale :-)
Load the ballista on the back of a pickup, and go whale hunting - there's always a japanese restaurant somewhere that will take it off your hands ;-)

So who wins in the shoot off between your treb and your granddads - who sounds like a slinging.org kind of fellow :-)

That's OK. In Pennsylvania, you can hunt boar with an atlatl. Of course, you have to be accurate the first time, or find a tall tree to climb.

Curious_Aardvark, how did you find that tidbit?  And do you know what states?  Somehow I just cannot imagine this being on the books in Kansas, for instance...

I have a book that contains silly/daft laws for places around the world - actually called the worlds stupidest laws.
isbn 1-84317-172-4
For example - in the month of june it is illegal to take a picture of a rabbit in wyoming - true.

The whale hunting one just creased me up. as one of the states mentioned is landlocked.

California has the moving vehicle whale law, as does tennessee.
In both states the only game you are legally allowed to shoot from a moving vehicle are whales :-)

Now there's a pretty big lake/river thing in tennessee but I dohbt they have freshwater whales :-)

There are so many daft laws in america because pretty much every town can make it's own up.

It is my ambition one day to travel round the world and break as many of these laws as I can :-)

Curious Aardvark wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2007 at 8:01am:

It is my ambition one day to travel round the world and break as many of these laws as I can :-)

The poor rabbit. :'( Photographed in June... :o

Does your book also state how those laws came into existance?

nope but given some of the american ones it's pretty obvious for example:
A kansas state game rule prohibits the use of mules in the hunting of ducks.
Some wag obviously went on a duck hunt witha mule and annoyed a councilman who got the law passed.

In fact that's what's so great about a lot of these laws - in order for the law to be passed someone must at some point have done it.

some great examples:-
in new orleans alligators must not be tied to fire hydrants.
in toronto it is illegal to drag a dead horse down yonge street on a sunday.
In seattle you may not carry a concealed weapon that is over six feet in length.

(rotfl -  this one is priceless) In oklahoma it is illegal to put the hind legs of a farm animal in your boots (you have to apply a little thought to that one - unless you were raised on jokes about welsh farmers, sheep and wellies - ie: you're english ;-)

(got to find the elephant one)
in san francisco elephants are not allowed to stroll down market street - unless they are on a lead.
in florida if an elephant is left tied to a parking meter - the meter fee must be paid.

And so on, :-)
There are a lot of odd laws elsewhere in the world but for strange and petty ones you can't beat the american legal system.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2007 at 8:01am:

I have a book that contains silly/daft laws for places around the world - actually called the worlds stupidest laws. isbn 1-84317-172-4 For example - in the month of june it is illegal to take a picture of a rabbit in wyoming - true. It is my ambition one day to travel round the world and break as many of these laws as I can :-)

C-A you depraved lawbreaker you!! Don't you know George specifically left for New Zealand and Australia in June so as not to be tempted. You know what Wyoming rabbits do in June don't you? How would you like to be photographed in the act?

What in the world does this have do do with siege engines?

BTW. In Melbourne it is illegal to park your siege engines in car parking spots, even if the fee is paid, but the law is extremely even handed because it is also illegal to park your car in spots reserved for siege engines except on public holidays and Sunday afternoons. It is also illegal to carry your siege engine conceled.

Hi, there is my trebuchet, which I built few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_NnDU1_Pk . It was able to throw 2 kilos stone about 60-70 meters. I tried to achieve flatter trajectory andr greater distance (because, as you can see, now stone travels in quite high arc), but the throwing arm broken  :'(.

Trebuchet is really impressive machine, and I hope to build bigger one day.

perfect for home defense. Nice.

Paulius wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2009 at 12:58pm:

Hi, there is my trebuchet, which I built few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_NnDU1_Pk . It was able to throw 2 kilos stone about 60-70 meters. I tried to achieve flatter trajectory andr greater distance (because, as you can see, now stone travels in quite high arc), but the throwing arm broken  :'(. Trebuchet is really impressive machine, and I hope to build bigger one day.

Impressive engine and and funny vid, Paulius!

Very impressive!

you know, i just might fit in that 8-)...

Aussie wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2007 at 9:12pm:

C-A you depraved lawbreaker you!! Don't you know George specifically left for New Zealand and Australia in June so as not to be tempted. You know what Wyoming rabbits do in June don't you? How would you like to be photographed in the act? BTW. In Melbourne it is illegal to park your siege engines in car parking spots, even if the fee is paid, but the law is extremely even handed because it is also illegal to park your car in spots reserved for siege engines except on public holidays and Sunday afternoons. It is also illegal to carry your siege engine conceled.

I've been to Wyoming. I try to avoid it on general principles. Although it does serve a useful purpose. It keeps whatever's on the east side from slamming into Idaho and Utah.

Got to keep an eye out for those siege engine parking spaces though. If I stuck a Trebuchet in the back pf my pickup, I could always get a parking space!