DIY Wooden Catapult

What inspired me?

Well, in mood of the Makerspace 2017 contest, I have decided to up my game with the wood working projects I complete. I have always wanted to make a table top catapult for some times now and recently found inspiration from Pinterest (as always). I decided to get the tools out and start working. As always, I decided to complete a basic sketch of the project so I knew what I needed. However, for this project I used scraps of wood I had lying around.

What do you need?

-A pile of wood most is 20mm thick.

(20mm by 50mm by 100mm)x2

(20mm by 75mm by 250mm)

(20mm dowel 55mm)

( 8mm dowel 60mm)

(50mm by 50mm by 20mm)

(30mm by 40mm by 20mm)

-Two 25mm screws

-Frame fixing thing

-Two 50mm screws

-4mm drill bit

-8mm drill bit

-20mm forstner bit

-counter sink tool

-Drill Driver

-50mm hole saw

-Jigsaw

-Sand paper (I used an orbital sander)

-Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks

Before anything, as mentioned before, I planned out the project and made sure I had all of the rough materials. I used a bunch of old wood I had from either old furniture of off cuts. Once I was sure I could complete the project, I began to make the swinging arm. To do this I used the 50mm by 50mm piece and by drawing two straight lines from each corner to make an 'x', I found the centre. I needed this to cut a perfect circle using the hole saw. Once the drill was fully charged, I used the hole saw to cut a 50mm hole into the work. Once I got about half way, I flipped the work over and started to cut one on the opposite side, this meant that I would get no blow out from the hole saw. I cut all the way through the work and using a nut and bold method so that I could place it in my drill, I sanded the surface to eliminate any burs left on the piece. I then used a 20mm forstner bit to get a 20mm hole in the piece and used my dremel to make the hole slightly wider.

After that, I wanted to make the base. I wanted to do it in this sequence as It helped me think about proportion and the positioning of the tower and arm. So, I had a long piece 20mm by 75mm by 2m from an old seat I had, and I wanted to just use up the piece of wood. I decided on 250mm as a suitable length and using the jig saw I cut it to length. This was quite a clean cut, but I decided to use the sander to get rid of any cut marks. I also went over the entire piece so that it was smooth and looked a lot cleaner. I rounded over all of the edges and corners to ensure it looked more like a toy.

I then wanted to make the two parts for the tower. I wanted to make them large enough to hold the arm but small enough that it wouldn’t look odd. I settled with a height of 100mm and then used a pencil and a ruler to make this onto the pieces of wood. Using the jig saw, I then cut the two pieces, making sure they were both the same size. I then ran over the with the sander to clear off any muck or marks.

I now had to cut the two pieces of dowel. I used 20mm dowel as I wanted it to be quite strong. I placed both parts of the tower onto the base and roughly measured the distance. I then added 10mm onto the distance as I wanted to make a hole on both pieces for the dowel to sit into. I then used my coping saw to cut it to length and used some sandpaper to get rid of the birs. I used a 20mm bit to drill two holed in the centre of both pieces 40mm above the base. I only drilled 5mm into the pieces and then I used a 4mm drill bit to drill all the way through. I then used a counter sink to make sure the screws sat flush.

I then needed 8mm dowel. I couldn’t find any so I decided to sand a pencil and use that. I placed it into my drill and used a 100grit sand paper to get rid of the hexagonal shape. I also wanted to get rid of the surface paint as I wanted an all wood finish. I cut this 10mm bigger than the other. I then drilled a hole on both tower pieces 15mm from the top. I made both holes 8mm in diameter and 10mm deep. This is so the tower is more secure.

I then used two 25m screws to secure this all together. I also used 50mm screws to hold the tower to the base. I also used a counter sunk hole to make sure the screws sat flush.

Once that was done, it was time to make the rest of the arm. I did this using the same 8mm dowel. I drilled a 8mm hole in the side of the ring and inserted the dowel. Once I decided on a length, I took the dowel out and used my coping saw to cut it to length. I then used a 30mm by 20mm length of wood to create the part the object sits in. I used the jig saw to cut this to 40mm and used the orbital sander to smooth the corners off. Using a dremel tool, I then made a shallow dip in the piece for objects to sit into without falling out. Using an 8mm drill bit, I then drilled a 10mm hole into the side of the piece so that it could attack to the 8mm dowel. I then used hot glue to attack this in place.

Thank you so much for reading this Instructable, even if you clicked onto the by accident thank you. Every view counts. I love these mini projects as it gives you people, my viewers a quick and simple project to try at home, please feel free to comment, follow and favourite for more amazing Summer DIY projects like this one.