Bike Powered Tennis Ball Launcher

[MrCrowley]

Just saw this and thought it was a cool piece of engineering made from recycled bike parts.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pedal-P ... -Launcher/

It uses the spinning wheel concept to launch a tennis ball, nothing us Spudders would condone

Just a few things that I thought were pretty cool:

*Being able to shoot where you want by moving the handle bars of the bike
*Simple setup
*Can be towed as a trailer
*Launching Lever
*Performance seems pretty good for what it is
*Feed and launch system


Nothing really revolutionary, just thought I might share it.

[Carlman]

yea i saw that a while back looks good, i want it in marble calibre hooked up to an old racing bike i have

[MaxuS the 2nd]

Could have it full auto, if a hopper was used.

[SpudFarm]

think if you do that with one of those top fuel dragster bikes
"instantly 300mph tennis ball"

back on topic:
if anyone have seen when mythbusters made the card thrower, i had that in the thoughts and it is not very different from this

[THUNDERLORD]

Cool build there. Nothing new though.
Except that it's powered by a bike instead of a motor.

Same concept on baseball batting cage launchers.
And another for footballs where the ball is fed in on a tray to slide the ball in from the back. Those had larger wheels (pneumatic tires for industrial wheel barrows or carts).
Cool that it's aimed by the handlebars.

The friction on the ball is for such a short duration, perhaps if it just smacked them (like a bat) they may go faster even.
(Unless it was firing something longer).

I was looking at a physics text book that showed the "sweet spot" on a baseball bat slightly lower than the tip. (Well known by baseball greats). Interesting.

I often wonder what people were thinking long long time ago while using foot powered sharpening stones or the first lathes (also pedal/foot powered).

BTW, If something longer was launched this way,There's a way to accelerate it even faster/further after it leaves the wheels (against rules to discuss, besides...) 8)

[SpudFarm]

I often wonder what people were thinking long long time ago while using foot powered sharpening stones or the first lathes (also pedal/foot powered).

"great time with all the equipment making life easier"

[starman]

Hummm...I thought the thing was pretty cool, until it looked like the peddler was having to work pretty hard to keep the wheels turning and load the balls at the same time.

Theennn it occurred to me that since you have to have a human powering the device, couldn't he just as easily just serve the balls with a regular tennis racquet? It really defeats the purpose of the ball launcher since its primary job in life is to completely do away with the requirement for another human....

Nifty little shop project...ridiculous as a real product though....

[THUNDERLORD]

I often wonder what people were thinking long long time ago while using foot powered sharpening stones or the first lathes (also pedal/foot powered).

"great time with all the equipment making life easier"

LOL spudfarm.
I was referring to something else. But thinking that also.
Kind of "Flintstones" back then.

Foot powered lathes! That's why invention and human progress shot up so fast once motors came out.
But the motors are fueled by gas coal or whatever.

So by politicians not helping these stupid fuel prices to power all the machinery, they are greatly hindering human progress because we are spending more time/effort on the fuel. (back to foot powered ?)
That's my own philosophy/rant and I may start a web-page about it sometime. 8)

EDIT: That's just an example of the industrial revolution ,created by machinery, ( powered by fuel). The most labor saving was in farming/agriculture. (people spent less time on these due to fuel powered machinery). Then came the explosion in technology.
Now these fuel prices are setting us back because labor spent working to
buy the fuels. That's what I was ranting about.

[MrCrowley]

Hummm...I thought the thing was pretty cool, until it looked like the peddler was having to work pretty hard to keep the wheels turning and load the balls at the same time.

Theennn it occurred to me that since you have to have a human powering the device, couldn't he just as easily just serve the balls with a regular tennis racquet? It really defeats the purpose of the ball launcher since its primary job in life is to completely do away with the requirement for another human....

Nifty little shop project...ridiculous as a real product though....

Yeah that's what I thought, he seemed to be struggling at the end.

[daxspudder]

I often wonder what people were thinking long long time ago while using foot powered sharpening stones or the first lathes (also pedal/foot powered).

"great time with all the equipment making life easier"

LOL spudfarm.
I was referring to something else. But thinking that also.
Kind of "Flintstones" back then.

Foot powered lathes! That's why invention and human progress shot up so fast once motors came out.
But the motors are fueled by gas coal or whatever.

So by politicians not helping these stupid fuel prices to power all the machinery, they are greatly hindering human progress because we are spending more time/effort on the fuel. (back to foot powered ?)
That's my own philosophy/rant and I may start a web-page about it sometime. 8)

EDIT: That's just an example of the industrial revolution ,created by machinery, ( powered by fuel). The most labor saving was in farming/agriculture. (people spent less time on these due to fuel powered machinery). Then came the explosion in technology.
Now these fuel prices are setting us back because labor spent working to
buy the fuels. That's what I was ranting about.

Made me think of a 6 foot tall gerbil walking out of a house saying "goodbye honey" as he left for work at the local power plant/running wheel....lolrofl

That is pretty cool, but he should make the tire have reciprocating bike pump that fills a pneumatic, then does a bunch of stuff over-my-head to make it fire reload and fill/fire again... that'd be cool...

[potatoflinger]

It's a cool project, but it could easily be outdone by a spudgunner.