Snowman Competition

SNOWMAN COMPETITION!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who entered.  I have added fun captions to each.

"Turn to the Dark side Luke - The light side will melt you!"

Dylan and Tyler 

"Walk Worthy?  But I can't walk!!"

JR

"Custer's' REAL last stand"

Lane

"The Walrus from Swiss Family Robinson"

Bray

"I want to hug him and squeeze him and call him George!"

Declan

"And Cain slew Abel - and the snow melted"

Landen

"I built and I built and now I'm exhausted - hold me up snowman."

Matias

"On my honor I will do my best... not to melt"

Diego

"The Abominable Snow Man"

Santi

""This is lumpy - My new friend."

Josh

"I don't know why you are so angry little snow man - I AM THRILLED!"

Zach

"You shall not pass!" 

Noah and John

"Kebler snow elf"

Sean

And finally our non-Trailman entry.....

"This is my snow I'm the man!"

Ben

How to Make the Firing Pin

Making the firing pin is easy.

Cut a 3 inch piece of dowel and drill a hole in one end about an inch from the end.  The hole will be for the string to thread thru so it needs to be small enough not to break the dowel but big enough to fit your string.

Next you will need some eye hooks.  The size of the eye should be big enough to fit the dowel.  

The eye hooks will attach to the trebuchet like this.  

Now you will need to fashion the sling to take the pin. Start with about 5 inches of tape and split down the center leaving two strips.

Trim about an inch off one side so it is shorter than the other

Place the shorter side on the longer side with sticky sides facing each other leaving a sticky part at each end.

 Now stick this strip loosely to the sling as shown.  I used my dowel to keep the space

You will need two more short strips - maybe 3-4 inches

This strip will wrap around the sling as shown.  You can wrap twice for more security but I haven't had one break yet.

Do the same below the loop

The pin fits like this

When its hooked up this is what you will have

 Fire in the hole!

Why Did I Make the Bean Bag Fling?

Pinewood Derby is synonymous, it seems, with scouting activities and my boys have had more than a few great times cheering on their cars at the derbies in the past.  When I attended my first Trail Life leadership meeting in DC, one of the areas of concern brought up by the grassroots members was coming up with something different as an alternative to the pinewood derby.

Living in Dover, Delaware, I was familiar with the annual Punkin Chunkin event held in south Delaware and televised on the Discovery channel each November (it is now on the Science Channel). I had an epiphany of taking the Punkin Chunkin idea and shrinking it down into a small-scale, derby-sized event for Trail Life.  My hope was that this event would be viewed as a viable alternative to pinewood derby.

The first thing I did was contact the Punkin Chunkin board of directors. They were both gracious and enthusiastic in offering their help. They even invited our troop to come check out a trebuchet in action as well as tour an array of other amazing Punkin Chunkin machines.  The Trailmen had a great time and not only was it a successful event, but I gained valuable information and got some incredible guidance and direction, especially about making it an accuracy competition, from Frank Payton of Punkin Chunkin.

Freak March snow flurries couldn't keep DE-01 away from the trebuchet! 

When I began the process I had several concerns.  First, when making trebuchets, the question of size; how small is too small and how big is too big?  I wanted a competition format that could be held in a gymnasium setting.  And after lots of trial and error, I believe that I have zeroed in on the Goldilocks zone for this competition.  When you have finished building your machines, you should be able to fire accurately from 10 to over 60 feet.  This will do nicely in a gym.

Next, I wanted to make the competition more skill oriented.  During pinewood, especially when boys are younger, the parents usually do the majority of the work on the cars and then, during the competition, the adult leaders run the track leaving the kids to root for their cars from the sidelines. As exciting as this was,  I always felt it would be great if during the competition they could tinker with their cars between heats to make them faster, like real pit crews.  In this competition I wanted the participants to have some control and to have practiced ahead of time to master the skill of firing the machine from different distances.  In the Bean Bag Fling, not only can the Trailmen complete the construction themselves, they will also set them up, aim them and fire them.  With this in mind, the trebuchet design needed to be light enough for even the smallest Trailman to carry and the amount of firing opportunities needed to be enough to get a good point distribution and yet few enough not to take all day.  As a result, I came up with 6 accuracy shots (2 each at 3 distances) and 2 distance shots for a total of eight shots.

Next, I needed a projectile.  Pumpkins were probably not a good choice due to size and the mess they would create. And besides, the name Punkin Chunkin was already taken and truly belongs where it is. So I decided making small bean bag projectiles was the best way to go.  These were easy to make and the weight and size of the bags could be varied (by making several of different sizes and fillings) which would affect distances of the shots.

Last, I wanted to design a trebuchet that would be inexpensive to make with plans easy enough for anyone to follow and build.  The plan I settled upon cost me less than $15 and allowed for the machine, sling and beanbags to all be made by hand, no power tools required.  The plan on this site is exactly that.  These machines are fun to make, easy to fire, can be repaired on the fly and can be enhanced using lots of decorative and engineering upgrades.

Hopefully you will have as much fun holding this competition as I did in making it up.  A final and most important thanks to Jesus Christ for Salvation and Glory to God for inspiring me to minister through Trail Life.

Walk Worthy

How to Make Bean Bags

You will need 2 or 3 balloons about the size shown, 

I bought the mixed bag of balloons at my local Dollar Tree store.

Cut the balloons as shown

You will also need the following materials: Dried beans or other filling material. I used lentils for this example.  A funnel (wide opening is helpful)  Something to tamp the beans into the balloon.  Here I used a chop stick.

Use the funnel to get the beans into the balloon

You will need to push the beans down into the balloon.

Be careful not to push so hard the you put a hole in the balloon.

Try not to overfill as you will need enough room to twist and tape the opening closed.

Once you reach the desired fill, twist the excess balloon at the top and tape the opening down

Now cut a second balloon

Wrap the second balloon around the first balloon in the opposite direction so that the opening are on opposite sides.

Tape down this opening as well - you do not need to twist this time, simply fold it over.

 You can use a clear tape or a same colored tape for a better finish. 

If you like, you can repeat this step again with a third balloon for better durability.

The ball should fit inside the sling as shown.

We recommend, that for the competition, you make several beanbags of various weights for firing at different distances.

Rules for Bean Bag Fling

Rules for Bean Bag Fling

Design Requirements/Specifications

Trebuchets, slings and beanbags must be made by the Trailmen and not store bought.

The maximum height of any trebuchet, including swing arm in the vertical position with release pin, is 3 feet.

The maximum length of the base of the trebuchet is 18 inches

The maximum width of the base of the trebuchet is 12 inches.

Competition Specifications

A minimum of three types of competitions are held - Accuracy, Distance and Best Design

Award categories must include, but are not limited to, “Most Accurate”,  “Longest Shot”, and “Best Design”.

Accuracy Competition

The firing targets will consist of 5 rings.  

The rings will get progressively smaller (like skeet ball) and the point value increase moving inward toward the center

.

The outer ring will be worth 5 points, moving inward, the fourth is 10, third is 15 second is 20 and the center is 25.  Maximum score per round is 50 and maximum score per competition is 150.

To begin the competition, the middle of the firing target ring will be placed  at a distance of 25 feet from the firing line.  

Each trailman is allowed 2 shots from each of 3 different distances.

After each competitor has taken his two shots at that distance, the target is then moved to the next distance.

Shots 1&2 will be shot from a distance of 25 feet

Shots 3&4 will be shot from a distance of 35 feet

Shots 4&5 will be shot from a distance of 45 feet

After each Trailman has completed 6 shots the scores from each shot will be added together and the highest score will win the accuracy competition.

In the event of a tie for highest score, the target will be moved out an additional 5 feet, to 30 feet, 

and two additional shots will be taken by tying competitions

.  

The distance will be set at 30 feet and the highest combined score will determine the winner.  

If yet another tie occurs, follow the same procedure with the target at a distance of 40' and then 50' if a third tie occurs.

Distance Competition

Each Trailman will get 2 shots with only the furthest shot being counted.  The longest shot wins.

Voting for Best Desgin

Before the accuracy and length competitions begin, have all competitors place their trebuchets in a protected (adult monitored/no touching) area. Provide ballots and a ballot box. Each Trailmen is allowed only one vote and the votes remain anonymous. This needs to be done far enough in advance so as not to delay the beginning of the other competitions. During the other competitions, have two adults count and double count the votes saving the winner's name to be announced at the Award's Ceremony at the end of the day.

This category could be expanded to include subdivisions such as "Best Use of Color", "Most Realistic", "I'd Pay Money for That", etc...to keep it fun and allow for more winners. You would simply provide each Trailman with a ballot for each category as well as a separate box for each of the different categories.

  

How to Make The Sling

You will need approximately 84 inches of string total cut into two 42 inch pieces 

Mark the middle of each 42 inch piece 

(Ignore the 20 inch measurement shown - I want to create more room for error with a longer string)

Cut a 5" length of duct tape  and then cut it down the middle long ways.

Place one piece of the tape (the half width of duct tape) at the mid point of both strings keeping a 

1 3/4 inch distance between the strings as shown above.

Fold the tape around the string as shown above making sure to maintain the  1 3/4 inch distance.

Place 2 more pieces (these also are the 1/2 widths of 5" lengths) one inch away from the center on each side keeping your 1 3/4 inch string spacing throughout.

Fold the pieces as shown like you did with the first one.

Cut another 7" length of duct tape and again, half it lengthwise.

Place one of the strips lengthwise underneath the 3 pieces.

Fold the ends over to lock into place

Repeat on the other side to finish the pocket as shown above

Bring the main arm down to the base.

Measure the distance it takes to extend the slings to the back of the base .  

Make sure the sting is tight at the furthest point.

 Tie one side of the finished sling through the hole on the main arm as shown

 Stretch the other end to the release pin at the top of the string arm and tie off

 Once both ends are secure and the pocket of the sling is centered,

you can trim the excess string.