window breaker

Artillery from the old days. Pretty cool.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

A classic I wish I had as a kid….now your grandson can attach a few water balloons to it and have even more fun. Well done.

i wish i had one now ! i got some neighbors on my nerves ! lol great project , looks like a lot of fun !

This is a nice project especially so since you were working with your grandson.

Nice post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I assume that by this point the grandson has heard the tradition of returning the diplomats via trebuchet following unsuccessful negotiations, and has re-enacted the historical events?

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

97 feet! Wow! It always amazed me how simple things like that can make something go so far. Always makes me wonder how far they could chunk a good sized rock in the old days. Great job with the build. I am sure it will be cherished. All little boys like a lethal weapon.

Keep up the great work!

-- -- Rob Hix, King George, VA

No, I don’t think my grandson has heard of the tradition of returning diplomats via trebuchet … otherwise he would probably want to send his younger brother! LOL.

-- Nothing says "I love you" like a saw blade.

Way cool. Neat project and neat story.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com

Can we get a blog with the plans? I know a few grownup kids and real kids that could use one….

One of my sons made one last summer. It was about 4’ tall and would throw water balloons (safer than golf balls) about 120 feet. I was amazed at the accuracy. You could cluster shots in 6’ circle at 40 yards. As he was building this I was wondering how do you get it to turn loose of the rope at exactly the right time. Turns out that the trigger is a strategically placed bent nail. The guy that invented this ( back in the day) was pretty sharp.

BTW – Yours looks much better than my son’s. His was just unfinished 2×4’s , concrete blocks in a bucket for ballast and a dish towel for a sling.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "

Hey, the idea of blogging it and even including plans sounds intriguing but it will have to wait a few days. I’m in the middle of getting some medical tests done and it’s taking most of my time. Barely have time to answer emails and respond to comments, etc. Besides that, the ‘old lady’ has been on my case about remodeling her kitchen. My disability (bilateral peripheral neuropathy, among others) makes it impossible to do more than four or five hours of work a day and even typing is a real chore for me. Believe it or not, I could once type about 140 words per minute. It’s taken me close to ten to type this much now! But thanks for the support. I’ll do a blog as soon as I can.

-- Nothing says "I love you" like a saw blade.

Take care Gus and keep us informed.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Just what I love, toys for tots.

-- Tom D

Neat. Did you have plans?

-- Maplewood, MN

Trebuchets are awesome. I actually can’t wait until I’ve got a chance to help my son build one for one of his classes :D

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

my neighbors dog keeps leaving presents on my grass . one of these could be a great way of returning an unwanted gift !! lol

Nah, no plans. I found a web site that had all kinds of calculations and such but after a while I realized that high school algebra and I had been apart too many decades. I used a divider and sorta took off the layout from a picture I found. Then I scaled the wood to what I thought would be strong enough to withstand the stresses. In the end, I shaved down the final version of the long end of the arm with one of my prized antique spokeshaves. The first two arms broke after a couple of shots. It took three tries to get that part right. I had to brace the fulcrum at the top of the A frames and used a quarter inch steel rod inserted and glued through a hole I bored from one side to the other.
With the arm cocked, it stands 28 inches tall. The final step was to pile in as much lead as it could hold (fishing weights, wheel balancing weights, etc) until I thought it would collapse … but it worked. The only key item I found was to make sure the wheels rotate smoothly or it could fly apart with the recoil. The wheels let it rock back and forth and that disipates the stresses.
Thanks everyone … gotta run. Time to go back to the hospital.

-- Nothing says "I love you" like a saw blade.

Wondered if it is on wheels that could go over grass. I could take it golfing with me….some of my drives don’t go 97 feet and they’re rarely accurate! Nice job!

-- Tom, Michigan ~ Working with a renewable resource called wood

I made the kids one of these. My daughter and I were in the back yard in near darkness shooting walnuts over the shop in a relativly safe direction, when it missfired one up in the air that landed on the neighbors roof!! These are great fun, good work!

-- Woodworking is Life. Anything before or after is just waiting.--S. McQueen sort of

That is a really neat piece – don’t know how I missed it the first time around. Clever design. How weaponry has evolved over the centuries – amazing! Gus take care of yourself and best of luck with your health tests.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

Thanks, Bill. I have an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow morning for an “evaluation”, but another surgeon referred me so there’s a good chance they will want to cut me sooner or later. The first guy said it’s been too many years since he’s done this particular type of operation and would rather let someone else do it who has had more recent practice. Seems like two out of three days now, I spend too many hours in bed and when I do get up, I’m so dizzy I can’t function.

I wanted to post more pics of my projects, but my camera is all out of megapixels or whatever. LOL. I built a mobile base for my table saw with an extension router table. I even went to the trouble of building my own fence and can now cut to the center of an 8 foot sheet of plywood. The fence is not perfect, but at the end of a four foot sweep along the rail the back end is only 1/16th of an inch off the mark. Not bad for a woodworker/welder/blacksmith, I’de say.

Perhaps after I get back in shape I’ll be able to do more.

-- Nothing says "I love you" like a saw blade.

Hey the golfing thing sounds like a great Idea. My motto is, its between you and the ball. Which means do what ever you need to do, to get the score down.
I have to but some hinges on it so it will fit in the bag.

-- Dominic, Trinity, Florida...Lets be safe out there.

Hey, what you golfers really need is a ballista, not a trebuchet! That way you can aim it like a rifle or crossbow.
And for long putts, you could just lay it flat on the ground! LOL.

-- Nothing says "I love you" like a saw blade.