Catapult Geeking

Catapults ROCK! You can probably guess that this is me (Josh) obsessing about these wonderful means of destruction. First of all there are several types of catapults:

• Trebuchets- These are the classic kind, with a counterwight, arm and sling. They work pretty much like a person with a sling throwing rocks.
• Onagers- These have slings too, but are powered with twisted ropes in stead of a counter wight. They are depicted as having spoons instead of slings, but I doubt they work as well, so I doubt they were ever realy used.
• Balistas Act like large bow's with large arrows. The idea is to shoot a big spear, possibly burning, a long distance.

It's fairily easy to make a catapult. There are no set plans though. the easiest way to find a good way of making a catapult is looking on the internet for ideas tips and diagrams, then making something up and trying it There are 3 kinds you can make. Tiny models, ones big enough to shoot cats with, but small enough to store in tehe garage, and ful sized ones. I suggest building a model first. It's easy to get supplies at hardware stores and piles of junked wood. It's easy to tweak them out to fire the maximum distace. Making a good sized one will take more time, money and effort, but will give you that much more satisfaction and primal delight. Once again, look at hardware stores, even though this might run you a bit. Using natural logs will give your machine a really cool look, especially becuase the best way to fasten things is with rope, to let the wood give a bit. But finding logs is not always easy. If you live in the woods of know someone who does, go for it though! The easiest way is too look around and ask around for pieces of wood. I'm making a 7 foot trebuchet out of an old fence that was in out backyard, which consisted of 2X6's and 6X6's. But not everyone can expect such luck. Remember that you want to use BIG pieces of material. The one thing catapults have in comon is that they have a lot of ptential energy, and everything needs to be re- enforced a whole lot. For building a full sized one, I can't give you the slightest clues, I've never made one, even though I want to. Just that it'll be very expensive, and unless you are rich or are sponsored somehow, it won't be easy to get funding.