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Lego Trebuchet
An anonymous reader submitted linkage to a
trebuchet made of legos. Using
australian coins for counterweights, it is able to throw a marble 50 feet or
more. I wish they had some photos of it in action, and maybe some
schematics for do it yourselfers, but regardless, looks like a fun
project if you have a pile of legos and a 4-day weekend ;)
If only they made lego cows to throw. This will change my castle wars now though.
"And your both 6 months pregnant by Billy Ray Sirus" "Then why is mom showing and i'm not?" - Married With Children
Now all we need is a lego Guillotine.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Of course, a major design flaw is the use of Australian coins, which only go about 56% as far as American ones.
http://au.finance.yahoo.com/m5?a=1&s=AUD&t=USD
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
So we've made a trebuchet out of lego bricks, but at what cost? Don't these mad men realise what they're combining? Weapons design, unlimited creativity, and lego bricks!
A few more rungs up the evolutionary design ladder coupled with another advance or two in mindstorms and we'll be recreating the first ten minutes of Teminator 2. Only this time, instead of a steel chromed skull, it'll be a smiling yellow face.
We're doomed.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
As a buzy research student currently writing his thesis I have no time to sit about and play with LEGO all day.
Oh wait no. Thats what I do all day every day while avoiding work.
Anyway after making a internet controllable camera and an internet controllable robot, I have run out of inspiration.
The research group lego has two motors and I want to make something that people can control over the internet. Any suggestions?
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
but you can only build the lego trebuchet after you upgrade the lego blacksmithy to make the lego siege workshop.
and don't forget to defend your lego trebuchet with lego archers and lego knights.
AND LOOKOUT FOR THE LEGO ZERG!
It was first broadcast about a year ago, part of a series called "Secrets of Lost Empires", and also included a nice Construction of a Chinese Rainbow Bridge.
The Trebuchet episode is scheduled to be rebroadcast on Tuesday, July 16, 2002, in the States.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
All we need now is the castle and Lego French Knights to taunt the English King and his men below...
And a Lego Cow.
RUN AWAY!!
kinda sad really.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Oh that was cool...
:))
:((
It was a long time ago, in my childhood, our history professor told us to build a catapult, a small one (so small we could carry in one hand)... my group (consisting of me and my friends) did a almost full size one, we needed to ask someone father to bring it to school in a truck, it was awesome, all our little friends hanging around with 20cm catapults when we were getting all the attention from the 9 year old girls with our 4 meter trebuchet... good ol times when my weekends used to last 7 days!
the sad part is that we never had the chance to test it...
Fabio - Sumare/Sao Paulo/Brazil/South America/Earth/Solar System/Milky Way/Universe
http://www.morroida.com.br
i once stuck all my lego together into a huge brick. i couldn't throw that 50 feet though.
"if i'd known it was harmless, i'd have killed it myself"
New NRA bumper sticker: Make Lego trebuchet criminal, and only criminals will have Lego trebuchets.
--All your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson
Although the photos section mentiones that the wheels are not quite necesassry, they are indeed:
The motion of the counterweight falling tries to pull the treb over. A counter to this is to put the trebuchet on wheels. So, as the counterweight falls, the treb rolls forward, allowing the counterweigtht to fall more vertically. This also dramatically increases the distance the treb can make.
More info on DIY trebuchets here
The "Floating Arm" trebuchet design was used on an episode of Junkyard Wars.
IN that design, the arm has two wheels, and runs on a track along the top of the trebuchet, while the counterweight drops purely downwards down a vertical track.
It wouldn't be suitable in midaeval times (due to the wheel on the arm), but is quite easy to do for modern designs, and nicely effective (as you no longer have the big counterweight swinging along, but only going up and down, something easier to engineer for with Legos).
Test your net with Netalyzr
With enough lego parts you can also build a working catapult, although in Canada the government requires you to register it as a hand gun.
The site links to another site where they got some inspiration from. The first product listed is a desktop trebuchet for $49.00.
I'd like to see this guy go up against a Lego Machine Gun.
I imagine the outcome would be similar to a Civ III game, after you fall out of the tech trading circle.
Feh, that's nothin! Too many parts, too easy to fail. What you -really- want to do is make a trebuchet out of -tinkertoys-.
Like I did!
http://www.stonekeep.com/trebuchet/
Event Management Solutions : http://www.stonekeep.com/
Oh god, the humour, it hurts. Stop. Please.
"I don't trust goats," --To Catch a Spy
Must have spent a couple days in the story submission queue. The 4 day weekend is half over now. Guess I can't build one till Christmas time. Thanks a lot Taco.
not quite as funny as this
*ducks and runs*
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
I've made some pretty badass weapons with Construx. They shouldn't be too hard to replicate with other building systems, if anyone's interested in doing so.
| |
___| |__
________ =====|
Okay, so basically what this is supposed to look like is two hollow tubes that are connected like a T, open at both ends. Then there's a plunger sorta thing. You insert it into the tube and attach it with a few rubber bands, so when you pull it back and let go it goes back into the tube.
When the plunger is in its normal position inside the bottom tube, it's blocking the intersection. So drop a bunch of marbles (or whatever projectiles you like) into the top tube. They should be slightly less wide than the tube itself. When you pull the plunger out, one projectile falls into the bottom tube. Let go of the plunger and it hits the marble, shooting it out the other end of the bottom tube.
I've built and fired many of these. They work very well. The one serious drawback is that there are problems firing them at angles too far from the horizontal.
Here's how to turn that semi-automatic into a gatling gun.
| |
___| |__
________ =====|---( o )
Okay, if the illustration is a bit unclear, this is a wheel behind the gun. On the edge of the wheel is a small rod. One end of a string is affixed to it, the other to the plunger. Now you can operate the weapon by turning the wheel. The wheel has to be attached to the gun by some structure along the side which doesn't interfere with anything.
You should put a handle that turns the wheel from the other side. If you use a gearset that allows you several shots per revolution, you'll have something resembling a gatling gun in action.
All it takes is nukes and nerves.
2^5
a trebuchet sounds cool but this guy took it into modern warfare, and built a Beretta!!
He even put out a manual so you can build it yourself.
If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.--David Brent
eh?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Apparently the guy who's hosting the site built his webserver from LEGO too.
/. effect.
NOTHING withstands the
If a trebuchet made of lego will throw a marble fifty feet, imagine how far one several stories high could throw an object! NASA is betting they could use one to launch satellites into space. It will be called the X-4000 Launch Aparatus.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Slap some wheels on the base of that thing and you might get as much as 60 to one (distance to throwing-arm-length) instead of the 30 to one you've gotten.
::Colz Grigor
I'm gonna go make one for myself. That's a really cool idea you had...
Those of you who find this cool, and haven't already read my trebuchet kit review, probably should :-).
...of this scene from News Radio:
... Who, who's John Chrysler
... there's no such person as John Chrysler.
... wait a minute ... wait a minute.
... you guys get the point I'm trying to make, right?
/MATT: Yeah/Yeah
...
...
---- Dave's Office ----
[Matthew and Joe are sitting on Dave's couch. Dave is standing and
lecturing them.]
DAVE: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why, but I do know if
Henry Ford and John Chrysler had spent all their time fighting, we'd still
be driving around in horse and buggy.
MATT: Umm
DAVE: The guy who invented the Chrysler?
JOE : [Laughing] There's
MATT: Oh no. No. Oh wait a minute
Is he by any chance related to Jack Chevrolet? [Laughs]
[Matthew and Joe laugh]
DAVE: Look. You
JOE
DAVE: Ok, great.
[Joe and Matthew get up to leave.]
MATT: [Repeating joke aloud] John Chrysler
DAVE: Matthew.
JOE : We're not laughing at you boss.
DAVE: Yeah
MATT: We're really not
JOE : [To Matthew] C'mon, we gotta get outta here dude. [To Dave] Hey.
Uh, give my regards to Bill Pontiac. [laughs]
[Matthew and Joe Exit.]
Here see the Star Wars trilogy legos style!
here