Thanksgiving is just round the corner and [mrak_ripple] was worried about serving food under social distancing conditions. Rather than bother with standard best practice, he chose to take a more exciting route – flinging side dishes with miniature siege weaponry. (Video, embedded below.)
The mashed potato trebuchet is a build in the modern style, relying on 8020 aluminium extrusion to allow for quick and easy assembly. It also takes advantage of what appears to be a heavy duty laser cutter, which creates strong steel brackets to hold everything together. The launcher cup to hold the mash is a 3D printed part, created in resin and held on the end of the arm with duct tape, since appropriate bolts didn’t fall to hand.
In the end, repeatability was a struggle, and we suspect the trebuchet won’t actually do food service on the holiday itself. However, it could certainly make for a fun game after dinner, seeing who can get the most mash onto a willing target. We’d love to see a mash cannon too, so if you’ve built one, drop us a line. Of course, if you’re into weirder, high performance designs, the flywheel trebuchet may be more your speed. Video after the break.
Trebuchet? Not an expert but looks more like a Mangonel. Maybe someone with actual siege weapon knowledge can comment.
Agreed. I don’t know what it is specifically, but I do know that it’s not a trebuchet…
Huh. Okay, Wikipedia refers to a mangonel as a “traction trebuchet”. I was not expecting that.
1st
Dumb
Please don’t give Lambert’s Cafeteria any ideas! They are the home of throwed rolls….let’s not add on mashed potatoes…😄😄😄
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWhw5Sqsa_Q
Po. Tay. Tors.
Boil ’em. Mash ’em. Stick them in a siege engine.
(Silly comment system. Can’t edit or delete. Grumble grumble)
Po. Tay. Toes.
Boil ’em. Mash ’em. Stick them in a siege engine.
the “heavy duty laser cutter” looks like a plasma cutter