The Office supplies trebuchet

Bored at work? Build your own 3" trebuchet out of paperclips and throw balls of blu-tac up to an amazing 4 feet. WOW!!
Please excuse the number of steps. It is really easy and can be made within an hour and from bits lying around the office, hence very cheaply.

Step 1 The tools and materials list

You will need:

1 pair of pliers (needle nose would be best, where available)
1 pair of scissors (yay for scissors)
8 paperclips
Cellotape
thin string/thread
Blu-tac
Corrugated card (approx 6"X6")
Ballast (I used a bunch of batteries from our recycling box)
Rubber band

Comments

[Redmonkey17]

P.S. it makes it much more stable.

[Redmonkey17]

Instead of taping the two a-frame posts together, add an ex-paperclip support to make a tripod

[Mustapha69]

model magic also works

[Eviil~~PikmiN__{7}]

of course we all have PLIERS laying around the office

[The nerdling]

you could use the handle of the scisors as pliers

[Scissorman]

Why wouldn't you?

[bassclarinet23]

I do...

[ductapeman]

:D its funny because its sarcatistly true

[Fieldownage]

I carry at least a Leatherman Wave and a small swiss army knife with me always? He's not prepared?

[Scissorman]

Well, "someone" is not going to survive the zombie apocalypse. :)

[martzsam]

lawls

[ductapeman]

dduuuude make a 1 paper tat u can fold up

[the dudemaster]

this instructable would be 100% percent better if you added more measurements. i just grabbed eight paperclips out of my computer desk and got to work and my clips were to long so i had to guess my base measurements and the result wasn't pretty.

[venom1539]

and also, what size of batteries are those

[venom1539]

I've been trying to build a portable trebuchet so that i can bring it to school and shoot erasers during indoor recess but just having one is fine. Now i can shoot erasers at my friends when they come over.

[steeler65]

i wonder if it can be used with different sized paper clips becasue i cant ever find seven of the same paper clips

[nutsandbolts_64]

cut all of the paper clips to the size of the smallest one you have. unless it was ridiculously small... most pliers have a v-notch thing that allows you to cout wire so you can use that.

[Dumchicken]

then cut the small paper clip to the size of the big one

[nutsandbolts_64]

Lol, how ridiculous.

[Dumchicken]

I:(

[nutsandbolts_64]

No no, seriously, how can you cut a small thing to make it bigger? Maybe you misinterpreted my comment. Got any sarcasm left in you?

[Dumchicken]

duct tape :P

[Dumchicken]

solder

[Dumchicken]

spliceing

[Dumchicken]

I:(

[nutsandbolts_64]

maybe... lol

[Scissorman]

Play nice people. (But I can cut a hole in a postcard that I can fit through. Maybe I'll Instructablise that one)

[nutsandbolts_64]

haha :D He probably mistook it as an offensive statement, but I don't want to take it further.

[Dumchicken]

I:(

[MSM85]

Use The same length for the 5 that make up your A frames and throwing arm, and the others could be just about any size.  Mine works well with larger clips for the A-frames and arm, and smaller ones for the axle and trigger.

[krusher29]

i just used blunt scissors as pliers.

[Scissorman]

That's what MacGuyver would do.

[Air_Assassin]

tip: use a pencil eraser

[charris12]

tip:the steeper the doglegs the beter!!

[Capt. Kidd]

i made a full size trebuchet that uses a fishing pole mech to wind the rope back...

[Eviil~~PikmiN__{7}]

make an instructable for it

[prosay]

i made mine and the range ways pathetic the range was only about 30cm

[prosay]

must we even use a trigger our fingers work better

[Goalie1]

Wow!  This is great!  I couldn't get it to work with just cardboard so I used ply- wood.  This also adds some distance

[santoso77]

 great man! got mine working in the 1st try. it shots about 3 meters! wooo hooo!