Since my little buddy is now 9 years old I made this 8 years ago. Shortly after my son started crawling around my wife wanted me to put it away in fear he was going to get hit by the arm. Cleaning out the shed last night I found it for him and then I had to take it away again for just the night so he would come to bed. But for about 4 hours all he did was play with it again. I never saw him so happy to see something in my life.
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Darn, the video would not load because the file is too large. But it is a catapult that resets its self and through his ball across the house for him.
Awesome. 
Yeah, can you post a how-to? I can already see my pup vibrating across the room just thinking about it…
I will take some better pictures of it tonight so one could replicate it.
I was laid off for a few months this winter/spring, and I had planned on building a trebuchet for throwing bumpers (and other things). Unfortunately, the project got delayed, and I don’t have time for it now, but one day, I will build one.
It’s a very simple design. The base is a closed box that has lead shot in it for weight. I needed the base to be heavy so it would not keep jumping around as the dog uses the catapult. The dog pushes down on the lever that is attached to the base with a door hinge. The other end of the lever is attached to the arm with some fishing line. You can see in the picture that I used some bolts and washers by the bowl on the back end of the arm to give it just enough weight to pull the arm back down and reset itself. In order to keep the arm as light as I could I removed material from the bottom side of the lever. I was also able to reduce the reset weight by moving the arm pivot point closer to the edge of the board. I have had longer and shorter arms on this catapult. The shorter arm seems to work better but needs to be long enough so when the ball leaves the bowl that it is above the dogs head. The arm should stop about 55 degrees from the floor. I added some foam pads on the contact points to reduce the noise.
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90% of the pictures I took are just blurs.
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It took about 45 min to teach him to use it. The hardest part is getting him to leave the ball in the cup.
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Please post a video on YouTube! That looks awesome!
And what is that dinosaur looking thing in the background? A bank? Did you make it?
And what is that dinosaur looking thing in the background?
That’s my son’s piggy bank. You feed the money in the dinosaur’s mouth and it ends up in his belly. I don’t remember where we got it.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Munchy wrote:</div>
And what is that dinosaur looking thing in the background?That’s my son’s piggy bank. You feed the money in the dinosaur’s mouth and it ends up in his belly. I don’t remember where we got it.
That looks pretty neat too, although not very full. Is he not doing all his chores or have you been raiding it for beer money?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Munchy wrote:</div>
And what is that dinosaur looking thing in the background?That’s my son’s piggy bank. You feed the money in the dinosaur’s mouth and it ends up in his belly. I don’t remember where we got it.
Cool! Though I was hoping you made it.
VERY cool. I will have to see if I can fashion one up this summer, thanks for the pictures and drawing. I just hope a GSP has enough patience to drop the ball for another toss on his own…
I just hope a GSP has enough patience to drop the ball for another toss on his own…
GSPs aren’t smart enough. 
(I kid, I kid)
GSPs aren’t smart enough.
(I kid, I kid)
I’ve had that thought pop in my head a few times over the years…
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