Viewer Project
-
By Thomas Kolleck from Champlin, MN
Added on January 6, 2015
This small army of miniature catapults came to be for my son’s 5th birthday party. My wife thought that it would be fun to let every guest walk away with something memorable. Since the Party Theme was Knights and Dragons, catapults seemed like a fitting choice. But they had to be something that could be assembled (otherwise it would not be fun according to my better half).
Rather than going online and buying a bunch of pre-fab catapults, I opened my mouth and said “I can build these myself”. Well, I did get them done at 3 a.m. the day before the party, partially due to procrastination but mostly due to completely underestimating the amount of time it would take.
After building a somewhat crude prototype, I decided on the concept of the slide in side walls that are held together by the wheel axles and the pivot and stop shaft. After completing the base and side walls, I found out that the walls on the sliding joint were too thin and could easily break just by pushing the side pieces together which happened when I inserted the “stop” shaft for the catapult arm. Luckily I was able to save the project by making supports to prevent lateral loading on the joint, which were the only pieces that needed to be glued to the base plate. The rest is held together by the “keyhole” joint and the axles and shaft.
Overall, they turned out great and the kids had a lot of fun with them during our long range shooting contest.
Copyright © 2006-2023 The Wood Whisperer Inc. The Wood Whisperer, The Wood Whisperer Guild, TWW, and TWW Guild are trademarks of The Wood Whisperer Inc. All rights reserved.
This site uses affiliate links. Given this, please assume that any links leading you to products or services are affiliate links that we will receive compensation from. However, there are millions of products and services on the web, and I only promote those products or services that I would use personally. The Wood Whisperer abides by word of mouth marketing standards and holds integrity in the highest regard. Should I ever be compensated to write, I will make full disclosure. I always give honest opinions, findings, and experiences on products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely our own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question. All content on The Wood Whisperer is copyrighted, and may not be reprinted in full form without my written consent.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |