Table catapult

A few years ago I was in the workshop waiting for something I'd glued up. I had a solid piece of good wood and figured I should create a small catapult from it to try hurdling for example grapes or olives.

The bandsaw was unused so I started cutting the solid wood up in rods to construct the catapult from. Then I started creating the cutaways for solid construction support and getting all the angles correct.
There's a lot of angles in a catapult.

The whole project took a little more than an hour to complete.

Building the braces

The braces needed some details to give rigid support.
Tooth picks were used as pegs.
A lot of glue were used.

Bottom angles

Tip hook

For good release of the projectile the tip hook need to be just right. For strength it was made from another piece of harder wood, wittled to shape.

Mounting on a board

All the pieces was kind of loosly held together and could not fire without falling so I attached them to a board with glue.

Adjustments

The sling length had to be adjusted a few times, and for adjustments a few extra holes were drilled in the beam.

Firing

Lessons learned

• Without time to make a nice finish anything look rough
• There's no such thing as excessive use of glue
• Even miniatures are time consuming to create
• Including adjustment possibilities sometimes is essential for function