My family built one of these back in 2003 or so. Not from these designs, but from ones we made up. Instead of the ‘bucket’ at the end, we used a short bar from a workout bench, and were able to quickly add/remove weights to it instead of putting the weight into a bucket.
Also, the trick with ‘aiming’ is done at the very end with the angle of the sling release peg - we used a metal rod that could be bent on the fly to make adjustments.
I never get to talk about this, so thank you for coming to my TrebTalk.
Went to the hardware store to get metal bracing for the bucket. They told me that they didn’t have trebuchet supplies… And retailers are wondering why everyone buys online!
I would totally build it and would siege the next big City. But they are lucky that all is in babaric-units and not metric, and I do not have a measuring tape in inch, so I guess the city is save. For now.
5/16, 11/16, 7 1/8, 1 5/8 … and how did they calculated the weight for the bucket? Three Hogs to a Mule? Crazy.
A number of key measurements are missing, anyway, like the length of the throwing beam itself.
I don’t see a weight for the bucket. I’m no trebuchet expert, but I’d assume you’d want to adjust that for your particular target each time you take your trebuchet out.
Hurl the first boulder then add or remove rocks from the bucket depending on if you over or under shot it.
Perhaps it’s for the best it’s in Imperial units, that’ll save most of Europe’s historic castles.
The superior siege engine, measured in inferior units.
Just shameful.
TIL full sized trebuchets are 1ft tall, who knew a seige weapon of such majesty came in such a small package.
Well, you can always scale up. The unity in the plans can be inches, but also feet, or, if you prefer metric, meter. You might even reduce some width and thickness values, but I’d recommend to replace some parts (e.g. axles) with metal.
Keep in mind that neighbors might object if you build a house-high medieval siege weapon in your back yard, especially if there are other houses around…
