Trebuchet

Trebuchets are why they stopped building castles. These ancient siege engines could throw thousand pound rocks hundreds of feet and knock down the walls. Of course, my trebuchet, in the Viollet-le-Duc style, won't be that big. I hope to have it throw a 10 pound rock about 150 feet. The throwing arm will be 10 feet long with a 250 pound weight at one end and a sling at the other.

Below are some pictures of the build in progress. The second shot shows me in there so you can get the scale of the thing. The third shot is pretty much as it will stand and is as far as I got on Dec. 12, 2005. It got dark.

OK, It's been awhile and I thought I'd show some of my progress. I got some nice, light brown, deck stain and sealer. I thought that would preserve the thing. That's why it looks orange. Maybe it will fade in time. The first picture shows that I got the arm attached. The second picture is a close up of how I used the weight bar from an old set of weights. The clamps that used to hold the weights on came in handy. Now all I have to do is make a 400 pound counter weight to go on the short end of the arm and then attach the sling to the other. Then we get to have fun!

Yes, earlier I said a 250 pound counter weight, but that's how things go. With a 400lb counter weight I can hurl a 5lb projectile about 300 feet. Bigger is better.

It's now the First of March. I didn't like the first throwing arm I built. It wasn't long enough and I didn't think it would hold the 400 pound weight and hold up to the 1.5 inch axle. Here you can see the new, stronger, 16 foot long arm compared to the original 12 foot arm. The new arm should throw a 10 pound rock about 300 feet... or more.

Now all I need to do is mount the arm, pour the cement for the weight, attach the weight, make the sling pouch, make the rest of the sling, make and mount the release pin, and finally, make some kind of trigger.

Back to Projects
Back to the Yosemite Llama Ranch

Last update: 08 March 2010