Smarties Bar & Grill #76

Ouch.
I guess I'm going to have to wait for the chess board then.

 

I have been looking into building a chess board and the squares are to be 2 to 2.5 inches square to be regulation. I am going to take the rest of today off. I can still work. Just have to be even more careful. Still need to find some dark wood. I am fortunate. I have seen much worse during my working life.

 

PS ouch is right.

 

~ Decades ago you would be given Cocaine to put on a wound to stop the pain .

 

We got any window professionals around here?

Just my luck. Oh yesterday afternoon I was throwing tennis balls with my David or Shepherd sling.

I was in my yard throwing them at my wooden privacy fence. So I let one fly in it went a little too far to the left. You could imagine my surprise as I heard broken glass.....

Yep the damn kitchen window. Double pane glass with a freaking tennis ball....

I could scarcely believe it but of course I had no choice the evidence was clear. So now I owe the landlord a window or try to figure out how to fix it myself.

Of course I wasn't using a stone for ammo as I was not out in the woods so I figured I would use a relatively safe tennis ball .....

I would guesstimate it probably had to be going about 70 miles an hour and I was about 30 ft away from the window.

I was at a friend's house the other day and he didn't believe I could throw a lead sinker well over a hundred yards.

There's a big freshly plowed field across the street from his house. Me and him and two other friends were present. I told him I was going to get it out past that patch of brown weeds which was a good 120 yards out.

So while they safely stood behind an oak tree and I went quite a distance away from them I threw it at a 45° angle.

About 5 seconds later we all saw it touchdown and kick up the dirt almost right where I said it was probably within a 50 foot area . I knew it was good when l let it loose. It's like a golf club, the swinger knows where it's going but observers may not see it.

It was a 4 oz lead egg sinker. Needless to say lead and stone is deadly ammo, leaving the pouch at a good 100 mph. Sometimes you hit what you're aiming at, sometimes you hit the kitchen window...

A 120 yards may sound unbelievable but keep in mind, the world record throw is 450 some odd yards with a 6 ounce lead football shape bullet

 

I got my 30' trebuchet to throw a 4lb projectile 100 yds.
Then we doubled the counterweight and tried again but the arm snapped throwing the projectile backwards right over the top of a mature oak tree.
The arm was two 4''x2''s and we'd inadvertently lined up two knots in the wood which is where it snapped.
It might have snapped anyway but I'd love to have known how far it would have thrown the projectile if it hadn't.
The broken trebuchet is still sitting in one of the fields but after 5 years of standing outside in all weather I wouldn't trust it to take any weight now.
I should just chop it up for firewood but I can't bring myself to do it.

 

Last thing I launched was aluminum foil compressed into a ball and shot from a mountain howser. Est over 100 meters with the largest load of powder (4 shotgun shells worth)

 

~ Anyone here ever use a "Wrist Rocket" .. ?

​

 

A long, long time ago. Considering things that were gotten into back then, it's somewhat of a miracle that we have both eyes, 10 fingers and 9.5 toes.

I have scars, dings and dents. Never ended up at the ER, Mom's response to gushing blood was to tell us to go wash it off outside and she'd bring the mercurochrome and an old rag, a couple of butterfly band aids. Her version of 'Walk it off'!

 

~ I hear that .. ! Surprised we survived climbing trees and riding bicycles and skateboards without all the protective gear and helmets. '

 

.... catching wild animals including rattle snakes.. brilliant bike wrecks, used to ride on the bumper of the PU thruough the fields and up to the main gate.. oh yeah, used to ride in the bed of the PU ,, and,, AND standing in the front seat of the car.. had a much better view of the world than kids have had since car seats.so much stuff we used to do that would land our parents in trouble as "child neglect: now.

 

I got a broken arm at age six climbing trees. I got a broken arm at age 12 from a skateboard.

 

I'm starting to think you might be a bit accident prone.
How's the thumb?

 

My thumb hurts like hail. I don't think it is infected yet.

 

I can cut glass but a double pain window would be difficult.

 

I recommend honey as a disinfectant. I use it on my cuts.

 

This thing is ugly...8 stitches and the bone in my thumb was exposed. I have my usual doctor s appointment tomorrow. See what my doc has to say.

 

I like just the regular one without the wrist brace. I'm pretty handy with one I can hit a beer can at 20 ft probably a good 7 out of 10 times

They are fun but they're a BB gun compared to the David sling. A typical slingshot bullet does not weigh over one half of an ounce.

A typical David sling bullet is 3 to 5 oz in weight.
It's all about bullet weight and velocity when it comes to projectiles.

 

Well I figured out my saving Grace anyways, at the top corners of the window are two locking devices these allow you to remove the entire window from the frame.

So I can conveniently tote it to the professional I find that will probably charge a good hundred bucks to repair it. Murphy's law in full effect with a sling

 

~ I think I may have signed your cast. We were all jealous because we couldn't have one ...

 

As a teenager I had unsupervised access to several firearms and no one was ever hurt or injured.... Except for that old abandoned school bus back in the woods that I shot full of holes. I'm lucky I didn't get hit with a ricochet because like a stupid kid I was sitting inside of the bus shooting it with a 22 rifle a 16 gauge shotgun and a 38 revolver.

Sounds like it was a labor of love, I'm sure it was heartbreaking to see it decommissioned. Sounds like it's time to build another one!

I've been meaning to make a similar device though it is much smaller in handheld.... A " staff sling "

Think about three or four foot piece of broomstick with a sling attached to the end of it. One side of the sling is attached to the staff and the release not is held in a small notch in the wood.

It can only be used to throw straight overhand but it can also throw a rock about the size of a grapefruit. Now you won't get no hundred plus yards out of it I would think 150 ft throw would be pretty good.

 

the thumb

 

I wouldn't know where to begin building one of those. Have you seen pumpkin chunkin?

 

Aw man, that is really deep.
I hope you're right handed, that's going to take months to heal.

 

They're remarkably simple.
We didn't start with a 30' one.
We started small and worked our way up.
First one was made of drinking straws.
The 30' one, which was named Trebuchet Guevara, was the mk7 version.
Mk 6 was about 8' tall and we used it to play cricket.

Yes I've seen pumpkin chunkin.
Also lots of high school physics experiments.
Trebuchet building is a lot more common in the US than it is here.

I think I've posted this before but here you go again.