Mini Mangonel/Onager

A couple years ago, I made a small working model of a catapult. It's made of 3/4" square wood and 1 3/8" x 1/4" stakes, the kind used for marking utility lines and for surveying, along with some hardware and other odds and ends I found around the house.

This particular kind of catapult is called a mangonel or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager_(siege_weapon) onager], named after a type of wild donkey because it kicks like one. It uses twisted nylon ropes for a spring, and can launch a nickel about twenty feet.

Since I already built the catapult, there are no pictures of the construction. I'll include dimensions and plans, though.

Step 1: Bottom Frame

1. Cut two of the square sticks to 11 inches, and three more to 5 inches.

2. Nail and glue four together to make a rectangle.

3. Nail and glue the third cross piece in the middle, five inches from each end.

Tips:
Drill pilot holes to keep the wood from splitting, and use several nails and plenty of glue in each connection to keep everything rigid.

Make sure everything sits level and square. The three cross pieces sit on the bottom.

Comments

[pyro4226]

yea same here. I tried this design with lego and it shattered.

[demydewaard]

i used kne'x and it really worked and it could shoot very far
and because you can bendthe kne'x is so good it was really easty to wind it up with this mechanism i hope you can do something with it :p

[agdollison]

i made one from lego the force broke the rode

[discontinuuity]

Yes, I've used lego before, with rubber bands. You can get about the same distance if everything doesn't fly apart. I assume you mean "rod"?