Catapult!

[JohnnyEgo]

Can you show some pictures of how you adjust the angle?

Pretty simple, really. The pivot arm is also the rotational axis. I had him measure and draw out all the angles between the side plate and the base, and then drill the holes so that two pins would fix it at the desired angle. He did pretty good for most of them, but was a little off on one of the 90 degree holes, which is why the upper front holes have one extra. I told him it was a feature; extra pin holder.











I had thought the hardest part of this whole thing would be explaining force vectors and free body diagrams to a 10 year old with zero knowledge of algebra or trigonometry. Turns out the hardest part by far was getting him to sit in a chair long enough to type up what he learned and fix the spelling and grammar errors.

[JohnnyEgo]

Stopsaw for the win! Brother has a 3/16” square notch in the bottom of his thumb bone from a conventional saw. He went out following week and bought a stopsaw.


Great to see a youngster able to properly use tools (instruction is key)

The most I've been able to give a movie is 1 3/4 thumbs up since 2001, so I was quick to adopt the Sawstop as soon as he grew to table-top height. The other moral of that story is they mean it when they tell you not to use the fence and the miter gauge at the same time in the manual...

[GilpinGuy]

Build a bigger version and have that dude in Golden toss huge snowballs at the tweaker.

[JohnnyEgo]

Or just position it under the tree he loves so that it becomes a self-solving problem?

[BladesNBarrels]

Great project and shop tour.
Best of the tools - SawStop and Festool.
Your son will look back on this someday and realize he was surrounded by the best, including Dad

[Irving]

I see now, the catapult operates the same each time and by changing the floor angle, you're also changing the release angle. That's a good method because it allows the power of each shot to be identical. The one we built in high school just raised or lowered the stop bar, so there was also more or less power behind each shot depending on the stop bar height.

[Trigger Time 23]

Man, nice shop set -up! Cool project!

[JoeRoss]

That is not a real shop, it is WAY to clean.

Love reading these kinds of posts. Yup, in the long run he will look back and smile.

[mtnhigh]

He means the Polaris RZR.


Now on to the Trebuchet...

I'm with BP on the trebuchet. maybe next year!
I am sure your son will appreciate the time with Dad even more down the road! and your shop needs more dust.. more clutter!

[Osmosis]

Good for you. Teaching great skills and making memories. Can’t wait to see next years project!