How to Make a Trebuchet Out of Scrap.

In this Instuctables I will teach you how to make a Trebuchet out of only scrap, and what I count as scrap is old wood some not even real wood boards but old logs, an old pallet, old screws, rope, an old strap, rocks, cinder blocks, a metal rod, and an old basket ball for ammo.

I did not buy a thing to make this Instructables.

Lots of extra wood.

A pallet for the base, note you do not have to use a pallet for the base you can make a base.

Four piece of wood that are one and one quarter the length of you base.

Four pieces of wood that are the length of the base.

Four pieces of wood that are a little bit shorter than the base.

One piece of wood that is half the length of the base.

At lest two piece of wood that are double the length of the base.

Around six pieces of wood that are thick as the metal rod.

At lest two pieces of rope, note the rope must be strong, and at lest 12 feet long.

A metal rod that is the same length of the base, note the metal rod most be very strong so I suggest not tin or aluminum.

Cinder block, Rocks, bricks, or anything that is heavy

Some screws.

In this step I am going over the safety tips, and the tools that you are going to need.

1: Work gloves, and work goggles or work glasses.

If you do not have the gloves it's okay just be careful with the
wood, and the goggle or glasses is just to make sure that you do not get dust in your eyes. And remember while you are building and when you are done to be very careful of the arm of the trebuchet if something goes wrong you could get really hurt. Oh and have fun building this :)

2: The tools that you are going to need are a screwdriver or a power drill, maybe a hammer, and a saw.

The power drill is not needed but it make building a lot faster, and the saw might be needed if you can't find the right size wood.

The hammer is just in case if there is nails in the scrap wood.

I found this old pallet in the scrap wood that was going to be burn.

Now if you can't find a good base you can always build a base.

To build a base you will need six wood boards that are around four feet long, now take three of your wood boards and place them in a straight line from each other so that two of the wood boards are four feet apart and place the third board in the middle, now take two of the wood boards and place it on top of the three wood boards so that the two wood boards are four feet across, and that each board is on top of one the end of the board, and then place the last wood board in the middle of the the two boards and screw them together.

now mind you that I do not have pictures for building the base because I found a base but your home made base should look some what like the pallet.

Now that we got a good base pallet or home made it's time to start building,

Take two of the four wood boards that are one and one quarter the length of your base and place them in a upside down V position on one end of the base and make sure to leave some room at the top so that you can still have a spot for the metal rode and screw them together you can see in picture 3.

Now that we made the upside down V time to make it a little bit stronger.

Take two of the one wood boards that are the same length of your base and place it so that it touches the bottom of the base and it should go straight up right to were the two boards meet like in the fifth picture, and place the other wood board so that it looks like kinda like the letter A like in picture 9 and screw them together.

Note because we are working with scrap something might not align if this does happen just improvise like I did in picture 6-8.

Go and grab the last two wood boards that are one and one quarter the length of the base and put them in upside down V position against the base and before you screw it together grab the metal rode and put it on the top of the upside down V and make sure it is level like in picture 7 if it is level than screw the wood on.

Now grab one of the wood that is the length of the base and put it on the base straight up like in picture 3.

Now grab the last wood board that is the length of the base and put it on it like in picture 4.

Now it's time to grab the wood boards that are a little bit shorter the base.

Take two of the wood boards that are a little bit shorter than the base and put the end of the boards to the middle of the base and the other end at the upside down V like in picture 2, and screw it together, and if you need more support you can always add more wood like in picture 3, 5, 6, and 7, now we are done with the back of the trebuchet, now time for the front.

Now take two of the wood boards that are a little bit shorter than the base and take the end of the wood boards and put it to the middle of the base and put the other end to the upside down V and screw them on, and now take the wood board that is haft the length of the base and put it level across the two wood boards that we just put on and screw it on like in picture 11.

Now it is time to make the arm for the trebuchet.

Take the wood boards that are twice the length of the base and the six pieces wood that is as thick as the metal rod.

Now take one of the wood boards that are twice the length of the base and mark the middle of it by placing the metal rod on it, and then take two of the little pieces of wood and screw them on to hold the metal rod like in picture 3, note you want to make sure that the rod is level if you hold the wood upright.

If the rod is level than grab another little piece of wood and screw it on the other two to hold down the rod like in picture 4.

Now take the last wood board that is twice the length of the base and the last three little wood boards that are as thick as the rod, and put one of the little wood at one end of the long board and put the other two at the other end of the board and screw them on like in picture 5, note to make some room between the two wood boards at the one end.

Now take the two wood boards that we have built and put the together and screw them like in picture 7.

And now put the arm on the trebuchet. Note make sure the side of the arm with the two wood boards are at the front like in picture 11.

In this step I will try to teach you how to do the knots for the trebuchet.

Lets start with the weight grab one of the ropes and a good weight I use this in picture 1, but anything that is heavy will work, note you can use some cloth to hold the weight.

Tie a good knot around the weight and the one end of the arm with the two wood pieces at the end like in picture 4-5,

Now you need a good way to hold the arm down, I use a strap with a stick in it, see in picture 6-7, but you do not have to have this, it is just better to.

Time to make the net, take the last rope and tie it to the other end of the arm like in picture 9-14, note you might have to mess with the rope to make it work.

Weight now time to put some weight on the base so that the trebuchet does not fall over, see in picture 18-19.

Now technically you are done but the I think the best part is to make it your own I did this by putting on a cardboard shield and a wood sword.

Ammo because I use a rope instead of a net my trebuchet can only fire balls.

Now if it does not fire right or far you will have to mess with the rope that holds the ball.

Have fun with this trebuchet.

I could not have built this with out the help of my brothers Will The Willing and Mason Elddir.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.