Christmas catapults
Posted: 2020-12-21 06:42am
This year I decided to build two catapults for the boys, figured it'd be something they like. did some googling and eventually ended up with the Da Vinci catapult which appealed to me.
I don't have any plans, just printed this and used it for inspiration.
Cut up the main parts using Ash and started the glue up. This was just a lot of cutting and milling of stock. Before I could start I had to decide that the catapults should be 30cm long and 15cm wide and the profile of the wood parts should be 20x25mm, then I could start making parts.
I sold my wood lathe this summer so I used the metal lathe to cut the cylinders, with some preparation to get as much dust as I could, wood dust is not nice to the machines.
I made the ratchet wheels in Solidworks and printed out two templates which I cut on the bandsaw.
Then I used the mill to cut the slots that will hold the wooden leaf springs.
Then I had to make some dowels, so I used a tip from Mattias Wandel and made a dowel jig. Worked real well, have idea for making one in metal now for different sizes.
Also worked on the trigger mechanism, the original one in the 1st pic wasn't very good. I instead made a wooden, spring loaded sear that you use a lever to release:
The "spoon" came out nice I thought. I used a wood router bit to make the gouge in the mill, I modified it and cut off the bearing that was used to follow along edges. It was broken anyway, a cheap 1/2" router bit set from ebay. I needed a pilot hole though so I used a normal 12mm router to make that, then I plunged the router bit on the mill and moved it a little along the X-axis to make an oval indentation.
Almost finished now.
I don't have any plans, just printed this and used it for inspiration.
Cut up the main parts using Ash and started the glue up. This was just a lot of cutting and milling of stock. Before I could start I had to decide that the catapults should be 30cm long and 15cm wide and the profile of the wood parts should be 20x25mm, then I could start making parts.
I sold my wood lathe this summer so I used the metal lathe to cut the cylinders, with some preparation to get as much dust as I could, wood dust is not nice to the machines.
I made the ratchet wheels in Solidworks and printed out two templates which I cut on the bandsaw.
Then I used the mill to cut the slots that will hold the wooden leaf springs.
Then I had to make some dowels, so I used a tip from Mattias Wandel and made a dowel jig. Worked real well, have idea for making one in metal now for different sizes.
Also worked on the trigger mechanism, the original one in the 1st pic wasn't very good. I instead made a wooden, spring loaded sear that you use a lever to release:
The "spoon" came out nice I thought. I used a wood router bit to make the gouge in the mill, I modified it and cut off the bearing that was used to follow along edges. It was broken anyway, a cheap 1/2" router bit set from ebay. I needed a pilot hole though so I used a normal 12mm router to make that, then I plunged the router bit on the mill and moved it a little along the X-axis to make an oval indentation.
Almost finished now.