The World Famous Floating Arm Trebuchet - Science Gifts

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- Wednesday, December 03, 2008
A blast to use
Reviewed By: Craig (Western, PA)
Upon completion and using this for several weeks I am pleased with the functioning and looks. It is very sturdy and works smoothly. It is easy to load and fire. The throws are surprisingly consistent, it is not uncommon that after five throws to have the golf balls land within a five feet radius. The parts could not have been cut more accurately. The fit of them was almost perfect. The directions explain every little thing with pictures showing every step. The construction was easy but there was more work building it than I expected. I am a modeler and woodworker so this was not a problem and actually desirable. On the other hand, if you are looking for a trebuchet that is ready to use out of the box then maybe this isn't for you. Building it was fun and gives a great deal of insight to the mechanics behind it. It took me about a week to build. You could do it quicker but to do a quality job and allowing clamping and drying time for the glue does take time. There was a fair amount of prep work on the parts. They come 95% cut out from a large piece of poplar but there is a thin piece of wood not cut at the bottom which needs cut by hand to separate each piece. I did have one question during the building process and emailed the manufacturer. They promptly replied with a super detailed explanation. So far I have thrown roughly 300 golf balls. They average close to 200 feet. There have only been several times the balls did not go at least 100 feet. Usually this was caused by experimenting with the adjustments. The total weight being dropped is about 10 pounds and falls 17 inches. There is a lot of force generated. It is fun to fire time after time. It is understandable for a quality "made in the U.S.A." item. It is just not inexpensive for a "toy" or model. In my opinion it is well worth it. It is nice to see an item like this made in the U.S.

- Sunday, December 28, 2008
the
Reviewed By: clembeau (milton, delaware)
This is a very nice item and fun to build. It works very well. The hard wood that it is made of is NOT realy HARD WOOD . The wood is actually POPULAR from the tulip popular tree, a soft wood but very nice to work with. All in All it is very nice.

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