LR- Trebuchet

[Adam Harrison]

Greetings,

Now that finals are over and I have some free time on my hands, I've decided
to take on our trebuchet project, since nobody has yet and we need to have
this thing built in a couple of months.  Earlier this year Padraig and I,
along with some others, discussed several different "looks" for our
trebuchet and we decided upon one that plain and simple looks really big and
mean.

So, tonight I set about researching construction techniques and what not,
hoping to find an easy way to do what we want to do.  The website where I
found pics of the treb we want to build didn't have plans, instructions, or
anything except the two pics.  After searching for about an hour or so I
stumbled upon a site that has a treb that doesn't look like the one we want
to build, but the uprights are constructed in a unique manner that we can
utilize for our design.

Now posessing the knowledge that we can pull this off without ultra
intricate planning, I decided to draw up plans for our treb.  I more or less
eyeballed it and then did some guessing and checking and some common sense
adjustments.  In the end I ended up with a side view of our treb in 1:12
scale.  It's gonna look really good folks.

The uprights stand 8 ft high, and the total height with the arm at rest is
15 ft.  The total length of the arm is 10 ft.  The total length of the
engine is 10 ft.  I haven't worked out the total width yet, but I would
expect it to be around 10 ft.

Yes, that's right, it's BIG.  But more importantly, it shouldn't break and
it's going to look better than any other engine on the field.  The entire
thing will be able to be disassembled for ease of transportation.  The
longest pieces will be 10 ft.


Now the bad news, we have exactly three months till Gulf Wars.  I want to
have this done by either Border Wars or Spring Melees, both of which are 2
months away.  After Spring Melees, we will be too rushed to have time for
minor adjustments and problem solving.  Not only is the construction going
to take a considerable amount of time, but also the planning that we haven't
done yet is going to take some time.  We need to address issues such as what
we are going to use for the axle, counterweight, mechanical cocking device,
sling.  Are we going to have several different sling lengths and have
interchangeable slings to quickly adjust range and trajectory?  Are we going
to have a trough that can be moved from side to side to make minor aiming
adjustments?  These are just some of the questions we need to answer before
construction begins.  Time is critical, we need to start working on this
right away.

-Bjorn, siege guy

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