Wooden Desktop Trebuchet

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials
3/8" Hardwood Square
1/8" Hardwood Dowel
3/16" Metal Rod
Jumbo Craft Sticks
Wood Glue
Heavy Stuff as a Counterweight

Tools
Saw
Miter Box
Ruler
Sharp Knife and/or Chisel(s)
Drill with 1/8" and 3/16" Drill bits
Clamps

You can really make this project out of just about any type of wood. I chose poplar because it's cheap and sturdy. Most big hardware stores will also have oak and occasionally maple. The design is stout enough that you could make it out of something softer like basswood. In fact, it's probably not a bad idea if you don't have a sharp narrow chisel and you're going to be carving the joints with a knife. These measurements call for just a little over six feet of it. Most 3/8" square is sold in three foot pieces. You might get away with just two if you adjusted the size of a couple of parts, but you'll almost certainly have to recut a couple of pieces so you might as well just get three sticks.

Comments

[ken247113]

just wondering but could you scale this trebuchet up?

[daninja]

snap whackers.

[thepelton]

Required strength of the beams goes up much faster than length as you magnify the size.

[superdude678]

There are a lot of things you left out of your materials list that you used. To make things easier for us trebuchet-builder-people, why don't you just make a big list of all the stuff you used. Make your instructions more organized more organized.

[FallenAngels]

how long did this take to make

[poopster101]

i made a smaller one out of matches---very hard to make notches---here is a pic

[AcceptableRisk]

That's pretty impressive. Does it actually throw? What did you use to weight it?

[spinach_dip]

I'm pretty sure that if he actually made it with matches, the wood itself would be heavy enough to use as a weight.

[poopster101]

it throws jus not very far and i used a fishing weight