How to Build A Trebuchet - begin assembly

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How To Build A Trebuchet

Assemble the swinging arm

Take your sixteen inch piece of wood and insert a hoop hook in one end then make three marks. One three inches from the end, one four inches, and one five inches. Drill these as holes. Drill these holes just a little bit bigger than the metal bar you are using. You should be able to easily insert the metal bar and swing the wood around it smoothly.

In the other end of the sixteen inch piece insert another hook loop as shown and also insert a nail into the end of the piece. It should be at a slight angle. After inserting the nail cut the head off or file it down. You will make a loop that has to slide easily off this so if it ihas a head it might get stuck.

Run your metal bar through one upright of the trebuchet then run it through your swing arm and finally run it right into the other side of the trebuchet. Important: The hookloop at the far end of the arm (yu cant see it here) should be on the bottom of the arm. Insure the trebuchet arm swings easily with no wobble and very little friction. It should swing nice and free.

Make your counterweight Tape up your counterweight. You can use almost anything heavy but not too big, AA batteries, a stone or some other item.like rolls of pennies. If you are having trouble with this you can always just wrap a bunch of metal objects or coins in a plastic bag- it will work just fine. Keep the overall size of the counterweight to about the size of a tennis ball or smaller. Now just tape your twist ties or wire to your counterweight and then loop it through the loop in the swing arm and the counterweight is ready. I made a twist tie loop and attached it to the ball. Then using a second twist tie I ran it though that and then though the loop on the swing arm then twisted it firmly,


We are almost done Now finish it up