Ballista

[Atlantis]

I've always wanted to build a piece of artillery. I've done a spudgun and have built a small crossbow already. I was wondering if anyone here has ever heard of, or made a Ballista. If you have made one, rate how hard it was to build, then give me a rating of how fun it is.

[sergeantspud2]

wow i just looked at one on google and it looks pretty complex but im sure it can be done. i wonder how far it goes have you ever seen one?

[K40T1C]

Yeah ive done a lot og medieval artillery and the like... Ballistas are among the most complicated and hardest to build. you also have to make the bolts for them which is somewhat hard... if your into some kind of ancient artillery i suggest making a trebuchet... they are3 also extremnley fun but are much easier to buil and you can use almost any weight... however if yopu dop want to i suggest you get a kit... one excellent site for seige engines is
http://www.mangonel.com/ballista/

[YobaRoba]

Ive made a few ballistas over the years, most simple being a lager siege crossbow with a winch for the bow. They are great fun to build, just make sure you have quite a bit of time. My last one took me about 2 weeks.

If you want a rerally fun peice of weaponry to make, id go for a repeating crossbow, if you want to, you could even scale it up in size so you get a large repeating seige crossbow, im making a normal one in the near future, ill be sure to post pictures of it here.

[Atlantis]

If I do make this, it won't use bolts as ammo, I was thinking golfballs or tennis balls. I was gonna make this a group project for all of my friends, we get really bored over the summer. I could attach the ropes to a can and fire anything that fits in the can.