The supercut video has 3 Years of Trebuchet action in 7 minutes!

https://youtu.be/XRkenjsqF1g

We are fundraising to rebuild the machine, if anyone would like to support the project the link is in the YouTube description.

Great video man!  Very scary break at the end.  It would be concerning to even approach the trebuchet after that.  Kudos to you guys to get in there and get it taken down safely (it appeared so anyway ;)).

so do you just play with it for fun ?

Couldn't see any bystanders in any of the video :-)

Love the howling/shrieking sounds the projectile makes! Emanates power. Very scary.

Is it broken? or are you just making improvements?

Note to self: Watch whole video before posting about unwatched video.

To those who haven't watched... yes... it is broken.

IronGoober wrote on May 10^th, 2022 at 12:54pm:

Note to self: Watch whole video before posting about unwatched video. To those who haven't watched... yes... it is broken.

You obviously didn't read my post either.  ;)  ;D

One of the arm joints/hinges basically disentegrated.

Didn't look like much damage to the rest, but that kind of stress could probably cause a lot more not so obvious damage.

Still curious about how and where you used to fire it.

Well, it honestly doesn't look that bad or expensive to fix...
Do you really need a fundraiser?

^written by a guy who has not done a day of carpentry in his life

Hey, sorry for the silence.  We had a small crowd that day, maybe two dozen people.  I invited the history department at my alma mater.   But yeah, I usually just shoot it for fun with friends and invite the public as a bonus.  My idea of fun is trying to push for distance.  If we didn't have a headwind and if the shot tuning had been better (sling length needed adjustment) I think we could have gone over 1,100 feet.  Each time I try to optimize more and more to get farther.

It's in good shape luckily, but it needs new axle support blocks and a new axle, and a few other things (lots of fresh tar and oil, some reinforcement plates).  The aftermath definitely was sketchy but getting it down safely was very rewarding!

The wooden axle is a really unique component, the piece must be select quality hardwood (dense, straight, no knots) and then it needs to be wood-turned on a lathe by a professional and then heat-shrunk iron bands installed by a blacksmith.  All of this makes the rebuild add up.

I am fronting the costs to rebuild (things are underway) but I wanted to open the door to the community to help out if they think it is cool.  It's a relatively expensive hobby and I have been covering most of the expenses for several years now.

so 366 yards.

With what sort of weight ?


makes you wonder what would have the most impact on an advancing enemy army at the same range.
500 rounds of lead from hand slingers or one huge missile from a trebuchet ? 

366 yards is well within lead glande range.

336 yards, shooting a 16lb bowling ball using a 2,400lb counterweight.

I would like to think that if the treb was a bit bigger (maybe 40' tall instead of 30') we could shoot 400 yards and basically be outside the range of most arrows and slingstones.

I do wonder what kind of impact this could have on a wall, I need to build a thicker target wall once we get the machine rebuilt.