How To Build a Trabuchet [ Slideshow ]

SlideShow : how to build trabuchet

Here are plans and pictures on how to build this medieval trebuchet. It is a siege engine that wreaked havoc in the middle ages and you can make this small 12 inch table top version with materials from around the house. Building this catapult-like weapon is easy and you can do it in a couple of hours. Without any tweaking or modifications this trebuchet launches a clay ball thirty feet. It is adjustable in several ways and you can build it to launch projectiles even further.

The Little Dragon Trebuchet - This Trebuchet Build Plan will take you about two hours to complete.







What You Need
                  The Recommended Tools for this project

• Hammer
• Saw
• Screwdriver
• Pliers (needlenose)
• Wood Glue
• File
• Scissors
• Drill and Bits
• Sandpaper
• Cutters for metal

Most of these tools are just recommended and you can vary the tools depending on what types of materials you use for this project. Here are some tips: Needle nose pliers are best for manipulating small parts but if you don't have any then any other type of pliers will be fine. The metal file shown in the center of the picture is recommended any time you work with metal - you should always file down cut metal so there are no sharp edges. The sandpaper shown is attached to a block; this makes sanding small parts easy and you should always sand every piece of wood you cut so there are no splinters.
Miscellaneous items needed to Make the Trebuchet

• Heavy object (three different ones are shown on the far left) only 1 needed
• Small screws
• Small Nails
• 2 eyehooks
• wire or bread ties
• Electrical tape (or masking)
• 3 feet of string
• piece of cloth - 6 inches.
• Paints (optional)
• 1 sheet of cardpaper -similar to cereal box (shown under the paints)

About the miscellaneous materials: The counterweight is very important and you should find something as heavy as possible. I used a chinese healing ball for my trebuchet but you can use items found around the house like batteries taped together, penny rolls taped together, a lump of heavy clay or even a rock. Special Note: You will also need a metal bar for the cross piece. I will talk more about this a bit later.

Wood Needed for the Project

• 1 16 inch piece
• 2 12 inch pieces
• 2 10 inch pieces
• 3 5 inch pieces
• 1 square piece of flat wood about 5-6 inches

About the wood: The wood I used is about one inch by one half inch thick. You can be very flexible with this and use almost anything similar. You can cut strips of wood if you need to. The sheet of wood shown is important for strength and it is about one quarter inch thick but thinner would be ok.
Okay! This is everything you need to make this table top Medieval Siege Weapon. Let's start with the building instructions.
I lot of people are building this Trebuchet and I get a lot of email about it. One of the common questions is about my counterweight. Seeing as I use a solid metal Chinese Healing Ball it makes quite a difference and not everybody has these. So to get an idea of how much one of these balls weighs I made up a little scale and weighed the ball with pennies. It comes out to 147 pennies. This gives you a good idea of what to shoot for with your counter weight. If you use three rolls of pennies your weight is about the same as mine.

Lets continue on and start building this Trebuchet

Let's cut all the wood for our Trebuchet first.

Using your long pieces of wood cut these lengths:

• 1 - 16 inch piece; This is the swing arm
• 2 12 inch pieces; These are the long base pieces
• 2 10 inch pieces; These are the uprights
• 3 5 inch pieces these are the cross pieces that complete the base

   Now cut the triangle support pieces . This is easily done by cutting a piece of wood to a square about 5-6 inches on each side. Then draw a line from one corner to the other and cut across this line. It gives you two identical triangles. Shown in the picture at right is the square with the line drawn on it before cutting. Lets continue on to the next part Trebuchet build page 2

Assemble the Base and main frame of the Trebuchet Assemble the Base and the main frame of the Trebuchet.

Here you add some crosspieces to the sides you already built. This easily transforms your pieces into something that actually looks like a trebuchet. If you use glue in this portion you can set it aside to dry while you are working on the swing arm.


Take the two side pieces you just made and stand them up with the triangle pieces on the outside. Then glue and nail or screw the five inch cross pieces onto them (all three of them). It will look like the picture at the right.


Look at your new structure. You can see at the very top of the uprights, in this picture there are black dots. Each upright will need a hole drilled in it at this dot. They are one inch from the top. You don't know yet what size hole to drill.. You will be inserting a metal piece across here and through these holes. When you find the metal piece you want then you drill the holes about the same size.

Find a piece of metal bar that is at least five inches long. It has to be fairly strong to support the counterweight and the swinging action. Suggestions: A coat hanger might be ok, but some coathangers are too weak, make sure you have a very sturdy one. Or use the metal handle from a pail. You can even cut the blade off a long screwdriver and use that. Look around for something. Do not insert the metal bar yet. You still have to make the swinging arm of the trebuchet.Need a metal bar for your trebuchet? The axle from a toy car is perfect for this. Dig through the toybox and see if you can find something like this.

Let's Make the Swinging arm of the 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



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