Did you follow a tutorial? How did you go about it? Any advice? (I'll make a new thread when the creation starts)
Thanks!
what you could do, is buy one of these kits from thinkgeek and see if you could get any inspiration from it?
[t]http://i.imgur.com/SrtrPNP.jpg[/t][t]http://i.imgur.com/qzgEx4E.jpg[/t]
I've built a lifesized one before but I don't think many of the things that work for an actual model would work for mini versions.
[editline]29th July 2014[/editline]
A real tip I can give you is to make sure your base is [I]stable[/I]. We secured our catapult about 3m into the ground and even then it was wobbly as heck after a couple of shots. Work on energy dispersion, it's the real catapult killer.
How miniature are you talking?
I made one on my own initiative with a mousetrap and some wooden blocks. Also, you need a way to keep it from going forward on its own. Copper wire is good. I'll look for mine so I can post some pics. It's good for shooting things like marshmallows(miniature), grapes/raisins, people, and my homemade silver-fulminate.
I made an Onager back in 7th grade for a social studies extra credit competition thing to chuck a steel marble as far as possible.
Basically just built this, but way scaled down, about 1' cubed
[img]http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_spring2005.web.dir/Jason_Hoisington/pictures/OnagerPic.jpg[/img]
I used nylon cord looped about 5-6 times for the spring tension and had little bits of wood on either side that I twisted to put as much pressure on the throwing arm as I could. For the risers to stop the throwing arm I used a couple bungee cords to stop it.
The sling was made of string and a dishrag, designed exactly as showen.. had a little brad nail at the tip that I had to experiment a bit with the angle of to get the release point just right.
It was awesome.. only took an afternoon to build and was tons of fun. Used to use it to chuck little lumps of fabric I'd set on fire. Def recommend building an Onager for ease and bang for your buck.
I once made a 6~ foot trebuchet out of K'Nex. Stumbled upon a steel rod that fit perfectly within the K'Nex pieces, reinforced the fuck out of the throwing arm, used a steel bolt for the hanging counter-weight axle, and had about 13-15 lbs. in the basket.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v45/Zero_Point/KNexFullView.jpg[/img]
I've always found a trebuchet is easier to make than a proper catapult.
I built a catapult as part of a science olympiad project when in middleschool and highschool. They're pretty simple to build, but it depends a lot if you are going for historical accuracy. I used bungee cords and latex tubing as an elastic that would provide the spring force to launch the catapult, where as with ancient catapults this spring force was derived from a standard rope, or the tension from bending of the wood. They don't really scale nicely, at least at hand held sizes, and thus the use of modern elastics or at the very least, nylon cords are a necessity. A trebuchet might be a better option as they use gravity and potential energy to launch their payloads.
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