CATAPULTA INCREASING POWER PT 2 

No Tods were harmed during this filming ... this time.

If anyone isn't sure what the 487ft/lbs or 640J actually means in real world applications, a 230 grain .45 ACP bullet coming out of the barrel of a Colt 1911 has a muzzle energy of 360ft/lbs or 485-ish Joules. So, yeah. This thing is wicked.

Tod, don’t worry about the criticisms from the safety nannies among us. You’re the man making this stuff, and it’s your safety on the line. You’re a grown man. You can manage your own safety. The safety nannies always come out of the woodwork on videos like this. It doesn’t matter what you do. You could have a team of government safety workers on site with a nuclear blast shield, and they would still find a problem.

I image Tod standing in his back garden howling, "MORE POWER!!! MAUW POOOOOWWWWAH!!!" while thunder crashes and lighting flashes. Basil has lucked-out with her choice of owner; just look at all that space she has to play in. Tod's tools in this video were especially impressive; odd-shaped assemblages of rusty steel designed to do one specific job, just right. Yikes! The penetration through the target is scary.

I just love that random "cat cameo" I don't know why, but it made my day 😀😆

I would have been terrified of Basil using a bundle as a scratching post and sending us all to the ER.

We the people demand more Basil!!

It took me like 7 or 8, 10 hour days to pre-tension my engines with 19 or 20 wraps each. I made custom, duel winches to pull each 1/2 wrap to a bit over 500 pounds. I used the note plucking technique as well. The straps I was using to pull with were rated at 500 pounds. Sometimes the strap would break. I learned what the note was just before the strap failed, and metered to that. So estimated pre-tension per engine was probably close to 24,000 pounds. Crazy numbers. That's only half the skein the engines were designed for. Next time I have it running, with the full bundle, forces will be in the 48k to 50,000 pounds per engine, before turning the washers, or cocking. Around 65,000 pounds per engine at full power. I don't know when things will start breaking. Should be terrifying.

This is awesome! So this means the massive distance claims we hear about these weapons were probably true.

Will we be seeing any armour penetration tests with this thing? That'd be both brutal AND interesting.

Hi Tod, it's good to see you took precautions. There's a 1 in a million chance anything hits you while wearing that tshirt. Great video as always

I have to imagine that back in the day this would have been a five man job to get done in any reasonable timeframe. Basically, brace the headstock face-down and have a person on each corner torquing it in unison with one person supervising the balance.

HE CANT BE STOPPED

finalllyyyy someone doing something on the ballista !!

Awww, Basil is so cute. :)

One of the best channels on YT.

I wonder if they worked with a pair of those "spanners" ... that way you could have two people tightening the rope bundles at the same time, and they can work against each other so it can be done in situ and kept balanced.

Дружище, твои видео невероятно захватывающие. Тот случай, когда научный подход к античным машинам заставляет почувствовать себя частью той потерянной культуры ))

You'll get that 660 Todd we believe in you!

Seems to have the Basil seal of approval. She likes siege equipment as well.

Beautiful cat! I see she's a big fan of siege engines as well.

Seems to me the tensioning would have been a lot easier if two people did it at once, balancing out the forces on either side. Tod, you do a fantastic job bringing these ancient weapons back to life, but you're only one man. The Roman army would have had teams of people to do jobs like this. The problems you experience would have been negated by enough manpower.

Cool man! Ancient weapons are dangerous, working ( experimenting) with them is dangerous. Not much you can do about it. Great stuff man.

Interesting Tod, as always. I wanted to add something. The catapult you built is not a single shooter model but probably three. In battle you have to go fast, two load the winch, the other pulls the shot. The one who shoots and therefore takes aim was never the one who fired the shot, which started thanks to a side trigger. If you pull the string attached to the trigger, the pull will shift the aim and the shot will not be accurate. Then two load the winch, another takes aim and one of the other two, at the command of the shooter. unlocks the trigger. Another thing, the catapult after the winch had to have an extension for the shoulder support and a handle, otherwise it was too inconvenient to hold it in place and pull the shot. Hello.

Todd, when I saw you torque those spans why standing above those metal stakes my heart skipped a beat a couple times

That was fascinating to watch. Whenever I have seen these described, applying tension to the skeins is described very vaguely, like you might need to rachet them up a bit between shots. Really interesting to see what a finely balanced and time consuming process it is.

Tod is like, " I'm going to show you something really interesting about my catapulta." Basil innocently wanders on to it, and suddenly I'm going, " TOD! What are you playing at?! It doesn't need to literally involve your cat now!"

I'm ex military I've had a few machineguns "blow-up" on me thrown grenades and breached doors, but bows with that much energy stored in the arms or bundles makes me nervous. But I guess that comes down too what your familiar with, stay safe I enjoy your videos.

Basil! What a cutie!!

These historical recreations are fascinating. Thank you for making them. Thank you for clarifying the catapult name changes through history, it's something I've wondered.

1. You are GOLD Tod! Thank you for sharing your secret on linear pretensioning the springs!!!! 2. Very cool that you started to include momentum in your calculation instead of simply comparing kinetic energy!

In your last video you had some buckling happening on the frame. I'm worried that if you power it up too much it could recur all at once and something bad could happen. Be careful and maybe consider a face shield when cocking it in case parts come back at the winch. Very interesting to see you working on this again. Good work.

So kudos to Gary Gygax, generations of Dungeons and Dragons players were right after all…ballista!

That is seriously cool.

Super, super cool.

Looking forward to the next vid!

this is awesome. I just love roman siege weaponry. I hope to see more of it on your channel

I'm so jealous of Basil

I too remember the dagger thrusting by the end of the pommel 😅

I can't even begin to imagine what the sound of one of those bundles breaking would be like... But I can understand not feeling safe when dealing with it so hats to you for doing these videos :-)

I'm very excited to see where this project goes. I tried making a simple ballista recently for a boil egg launching competition. I was able to accurately hit the competition target at 200yards, but the torsion was too much for my oak wood bundle washers and they began splitting and breaking apart. I was using 1/2" steel bolts for the bundle anchors, and they all bent under the torsion power. Next year, I will incorporate many more iron/steel components to handle the incredible stresses and I've learned to weld. Your design has certainly inspired me.

Hot damn that is a lot of power.

Couldn't wait for this part 2. Great work sir!!!

Your caution is much appreciated. I was on the edge of my seat watching you add winding to both sides. Thanks Tod, great film.

Having had a early model compound bow fail while at full draw (the cable held and it became a flail hitting me in the head) - so I was watching with a little concern. - Thanks Tod - really enjoy your work as well as the comment section.

I loved this. so interesting. you won't find this information anywhere else.

Very impressive machine

Absolutely terrifying machine. Can't wait to see it tested against some objects that help illustrate the power

Brilliant, thanks

Love the Cat - a - pulta!

I'd always known devices like this as ballistas, as it was the first word used to describe the massively, beefy item at Vindolanda that I crossed paths with as a kid on a school trip. I can appreciate that many different words were used to describe them and that, over time, one word was favoured over the other but in some cases, it's just splitting hairs for no reason. If someone wants to call it a catapulta I'm fine with that and if they want to call it a ballista I'm fine with that, just as long as we agree on its construction and how it works, which is the priority point. 👍

cant wait for part 3

I looked at this about 35 years ago on a tiny scale model, I think it was really small. About 1-10 scale and I just couldn't seem to get the tuning right as there was sort of some economics of scale for small things which really only work at a material science level when they are bigger. Especially when it came to the torsional materials there wasn't much about that would work! The really scary thing is, even at the size you're working at (which is not inconsiderable) would probably have been classed as a light artillery piece they would have tacked onto a centuria as sort of auxiliaries and the big gear you got in Legions was so much bigger its quite scary. So I do appreciate and understand the struggle. You might need more blokes soon though for muscle

So interesting, great videos, thanks... 😜

My son and I made a hand held version of this for him to do target practice with. He loves it. Can’t wait for him to watch these films

A devastating historical weapon and a cat!? This video had it all 👍👍

"Well, that's going to do something." Understatement much? ;)

I cannot wait to see if you can hit a 1000 joules with this. That would be absolutely insane.

It's official, Tod is a wizard and Basil is his familiar.

I came here for the catapulta. I stayed for the cat.

That side view shot really showed how powerful the catapulta is

I actually want to see you again, so do take great care in pushing that thing to its limits. Good stuff!

Great Video as always!

Tod your sheer fascination and enthusiasm is so infectious, enjoyable, and interesting, i wish all history teachers to be inspired, i absolutely love all the work that you do its how real history comes alive in your hands and hands on too, even with a element of danger. Many thanks Tod.

640J is godlike power. Change ropes with some more tight organic material will produce more power, tho.

Yeah, science!

Whether things work or not is irrelevant... we still learn. That's what's important. Love these vids and experiments! I can't wait for the armor target dummies to come out for this.

I recently saw one of these weapons in the opening scene of the movie “Gladiator”. Thanks to Tod, I knew what to call it👍

Watched my first vid today - instantly subscribed 👍🏻👏🏻🍻

your passion for your craft is inspiring Tod. Thank you for sharing with us!

Keep it up mate…it’s quite something to see in operation. You’re quite an engineer!

BASIL!

Can you make two tensioning levers that you can then use opposed to each other? That would tension both sides at once, and you could pull them towards each other to counter the force trying to twist the frame.

Todd thanks for digging this old project out its been a joy to watch you tuning and tweaking it into a deadly piece of history!

Ow yes! uploaded 10 minutes ago..... I definitely haven't been checking you channel religiously for this video..... Honestly!......

Better watch out Tod you'll be sending them into your neighbors yard hahaha Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

Todd should get safety T-shirt from Jorg.

😂 comments from people about safety concerns on your videos? I hope you told those people to go pound sand, and that they could be as safe as they wanted to on their videos. Love you Todd

Bloody fascinating! Thank you.

"You have for the period heavy armor and a shield in front of you? That's cute."

Todd, if you add some height to the tension box you can get more tension in the bundles with less stress on the individual ropes. That would also allow you to change out the bowed arm stops/sides. I’d add about 4”, kiln dried ash would be my choice.

a local uni built one of these. while testing it one of the arms broke at close to full tension. they got really lucky, as only one of the guys testing got a broken arm. no one else was harmed.

Hello from the future. Is 'Part 3', on pay-per-view, or something? Hope it isn't absent, because someone got injured.

Looking forward to the next one, enjoying the journey! 😁

If I recall correctly Wet rope is longer than dry rope, when you rebuild it wetting the rope while you pre tension each loop, when it dries the contraction will give you some free torsional strength?

Fantastic! So excited for you! Love your work and enthusiasm!

I guess we got it mostly wrong and ballista were mostly use to launch shotput balls? I always thought big gaunt oversized arrow seemed not that usable and a longbow would be better... Ballista balls are much more likely to kill or maim 1 person with added richochet bonus damage, or shooting 5 balls at once. Where as the giant arrow would just hit 1 person and seems like a big waste.

NO! basil is not another story!!! Pet the kitty!

Look forward to each of these, stay safe!

You could hear and feel the power of the second bolt. Imagine that cutting through a formation of enemy infantry. Frightening, one bolt could take out 4-5 soldiers, perhaps more? Imagine a battery of them.

Todd, great work. Your machine exceeded my expectations.

Can't wait to see this at full power and see its range! Hope you have a long field!

Greetings Todd! I represent the elbonian state and we're very interested to acquire a few samples of this magnificent weapon and put it in our trial grounds to assess its worth.

You just make my days better. Love your work, never change sir.

Great video as always. BTW recently I've read interesting article about Roman balistas which claimed that nowadays the consensus among academics is that the arms were reversed, pointing forward and pulled inwards.

This is gonna be awesome

Look forward to a rebuilt machine with seasoned woods, possibly a scoop design on the arms to stop the rope slip and mitigate movement?

44. magnum rounds are around 1000 joules of energy, fingers crossed this beat it. 5.56x45 is 1800 joules. To reach that, the 250 gram bolt would have to breakthe sound barrier, which probably won't happen, but maybe with a heavier bolt?

Awesome