Author
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Topic: treb update-wood can be a vengeful thing.
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Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-08-2001 09:14 PM
I have come to the conclusion that trebuchets don't like being built. I had successfully measured and cut the wood and it successfully fell on my toes a few times. Whack!!-I wonder what Jeff my downstairs neighbor thought of all the banging around. Well he knows what I am up to, I invited him to hurl rocks into the lake with me on vacation. Of course there are the splinters-I got my share of them today. I got covered in sawdust as did my floor. Then my coke got knocked over into the sawdust and made a hugh mess. In attempts at loosely erecting the frame to get an idea of how it would look, it kept trying to fall on me. I am glad that it is not one of those large anti-castle ones! Finally I got one side of the frame up and found out as I had suspected that I probably needed more wood. As it is it would look rather spindly and seems like it might shake itself apart at the first hurl. At this point I gave up because my back was hurting and my legs were stiff so that I was walking around like I needed a cane. [This message has been edited by Shelly (edited 06-08-2001).] |
Fox Atreides Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 01:29 AM
LOL (both Dutch and English lol)------------------ -Mattun- The world can be as you want, when you are as the world wants you. |
Peter Member
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posted 06-09-2001 04:22 AM
Shelly .. you are lovely & mad. We had a guy down the road who built a huge boat in his back garden. Then spent a fortune hiring crane to come along and lift it over his house. Will you be taking the roof of yours to lift the infernal machine out ? |
duncan Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 06:45 AM
I knew a guy that built a large sail boat in his wood working shop while forgetting the size of the door. He thought of making the door larger and the boat smaller, i guess it worked, as the wall fell it crushed the boat. Shelly you are to be commended for all the work and time you have spent on your project. I hope it throws rocks, pumpkins, melons, or what ever, far beyond your wildest dreams. |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 06:57 AM
Welllll, more like tearing down the wall-I live in a reconverted hotel building with two storys of people living above me so the roof idea is out-I don't think they would appreciate my machine being hauled up through their floors, people can get picky sometimes. Getting it onto the elevators might also present a slight problem. |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 07:57 AM
Well, no wall is going to fall on my trebuchet! I am making it so that it can be erected and taken apart easily-I hope, if it doesn't kill me first. How long did that guy work on the boat?[This message has been edited by Shelly (edited 06-09-2001).] |
duncan Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 08:14 AM
The boat was a large tri hull sailing craft and he worked on it over 5 years. Most of the hull did survive but the teak wood deck splintered and the floor suports punched large holes below the water line. After the clean up he wheeled what was left out of the new larger door way. I hope a wall doesn't fall on your treuchet! Your neighbors might not like that any better then you would. What tools are useing, power or hand saws? And how are you getting all the wood in the Lift? |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 08:30 AM
I am using a handsaw( aren't I authentic? ). There will be no nails just ropes. and as far as getting onto the elevators I will make more than one trip. I will generally defy the laws of physics for fitting long objects into small spaces like I did when I got the wood. Of course it was difficult for people to get on with me.Did he ever get his boat seaworthy again? [This message has been edited by Shelly (edited 06-09-2001).] |
duncan Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 08:52 AM
A hand saw and only ropes. You've got some work ahead of you but as long as you enjoy it thats what makes it fun. Yes, i do think you have defied the laws of physics with what you have carried up. Is this the type that has wheels or a solid base? The guy did get the boat seaworthy after a few more months of work, launched it and before leaveing the dock decided he didn't know how {want?] to sail. He sold it. |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 09:09 AM
I will have a solid base and a hinged counterweight. I cut the wood in such a way that when it is tied the joints should fit tightly-in theory anyway. I admit it, I know very little about carpentry and that I am sort of winging it.He sold it after all that work? |
duncan Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 09:36 AM
I think your learning about carpentry and some other very ancient skills. How many others do you know that have ever built a treb. Let alone two? Your plan sounds good and your taking your time in the building phase so it should work just fine. This may be too late to help but there is a way of cutting joints that when pressure is applied the whole thing becomes stronger. The cuts are made wider at the end which has the most stress and narrows to the opposite end often requring a hammer to put together due to what should be a tight fit. Another ancient bit of knowldge, {no jokes about my age either!} The guys wife may have had more to do with the selling of the boat. I thnk she said something about all of his luck up to that point and it scared him. I saw the boat off and on undersail for several years after and it seemed very graceful. |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 09:57 AM
Even if it is too late I would like to know what type of joints they used.I bet he regretted it afterwards. [This message has been edited by Shelly (edited 06-09-2001).] |
duncan Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 10:32 AM
Have you been to this site? http://www.tfguild.org/fling/fling0.html I would think that many of the ones we use in Timber Framing today like the three Mortise and Tenon Joints, the English tying joint, lap and maybe even the scarf joint if they were short of wood in long lengths. |
Shelly Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 10:43 AM
I'll check it out. Thanks! |
Fox Atreides Senior Member
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posted 06-09-2001 11:20 AM
Wow, this lookes like a chatbox..------------------ -Mattun- The world can be as you want, when you are as the world wants you. |