Aaron and I were able to work on the 'ol trebuchet model a little more and I felt the need to share our progress (it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something). So here it goes . . .
We used a quarter inch metal bar instead of the quarter inch dowel and it didn't work quite as well as expected . . . time for a bigger pivot bar.
Consequently a bigger pivot bar means a bigger hole.
Of course the problem with a hole cutter is that it spins quite a bit more than we needed - so we needed a bigger bar than we originally thought. Funny how these things work out.
Bigger hole, means bigger bar, means bigger pivot points. We're getting there.
Here we finally have the new bar in place - it looks pretty good I think. And it will definatly support any weight we can fit in the box. (You can see we've improved the supports since my last post - they may still need some work, but the changes will probably wait until the full scale.)
Our trigger mechanism is pretty simple - two eyeholes screwed into the base and one in the arm with a release pin through all three, it actually works really well.
Here is the full picture of our trebuchet in its ready position. (This is where it has a lot of potential energy)
This is the resting position and shows everything we've finished to date - we still need to make a sling, secure the pivot bar and run some scale tests then it's full speed ahead to the full scale (which is good because we're quickly running out of time).
I hope that more updates will follow, but I'm getting busier and busier as summer approaches and I may not be able to update on this project until it's done. Until next time . . .
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