Halving the arm
April 3, 2011So the largest change that we are making to the design of the trebuchet is that we are going to halve the width of the arm. This of course halves the strength. We are going to beef up the cable-stay at the top and add a second line that attaches closer to the middle of the arm. This should relieve much of the stress on the arm.
The new question is how to attach the haul down line. Climbing to the top of the arm seems less easy since it won’t be as easy to slot in the ladder system. The idea is to use the haul down system that utilizes a long cable attached to the arm. You put a pulley on the end of the haul down line and this walks along the cable on the arm. I’m not really sure if there is a mechanical advantage to this or not. I plan to look into this more, but it would help with climbing to the top.
