The Office Siege Weapon Series: The Pencil Trebuchet

Step 7 Finish it up!

to finish this project, you unbend one of your paperclips and slide it through the holes you made in the A frames. as you do that, also slide the paperclip through the hole in the middle of your throwing arm. next you need to twist the ends of the paperclip around the A frame.the last thing you need is to cut a notecard in half. then, tape it to one end of the frame to form a ramp.

Hooray! you finished the Pencil Trebuchet!

fyi: (you can also make a realease system out of string and paperclips.please, if you have any ideas on a good reasease system, please post a pic!)

Comments

[Morgoroth]

What kind of distance can you get? Also, how heavy does the wieght need to be? And what kind of stuff do you usually throw?

[zaro12345]

well, curently, i can get about 15 feet throwing staples, pennies and such. but, if you used better string then fishing line, i'm sure you could get farther. Also, the counterwhieght varies by what you're throwing. A heavier counterwieght for a heavier projectile.

[Morgoroth]

The sling is probably the part that is the most tricky for the one I am making. I could probably use fabric, but I think that would be cheating a little since I don't have any at the office and I want to make it as much as possible out of office supplies. However, I have made a sling out of one of those little empty mustard packets and some string and I think that it will work out once I get the other details fixed. How long should the sling be?

[yumadome]

I was thinking about your 'no fabric in the office' problem...
I haven't tried building this yet so I don't have a feel for how much you need but it doesn't appear to be much...

You might look under your office chairs... many of them have the fabric pulled around the seat and/or back and stapled.  You might have enough extra sticking past the staples it could be trimmed off... then it would certainly count as coming from the office!

Either that or see if you can talk your cleaning staff out of a rag... it seems like that would be legitimate too.

That or raid the first aid kit for gauze?

[yumadome]

Oops... I just noticed how old this thread is... ah well...

[zaro12345]

Eh, it's an old thread, but I do actually reply to comments (for the most part). Great idea, I might incorporate that into my Office Floating Arm Trebuchet instructable (when i get around to it, that is.)

[zaro12345]

this also depends on what you're throwing. For lighter projectiles, use a shorter legth. Heavier, longer. BTW, nice inginuity on the mustard packet. I didn't even think of that.

[Morgoroth]

Thanks. I also made one out of a paper towel that works well. I doubt it would work for anything heavier than a penny, but it seems to work for that.