What do you do when your fiancé is mad at drywall? You find a branch that he can turn into a catapult.
We were in the middle of fixing a leak in our ceiling and a piece of drywall that needed to be put up was not cooperating. If you read about our ceiling, you know what I'm talking about.
Jesse was PISSED at this piece of drywall. I decided to step out onto our balcony so they could talk it out without my interruption. That's when I spotted it...a long somewhat curved branch perfectly placed next to our balcony. I gave it a test fling....Jesse could make a catapult out of this branch.
I could not WAIT to tell him about this. This is just the kind of thing that Jesse loves, something that allows him to be mischievous and act like a kid all in one. He was going to love it.
Once, back when we lived in our old house, we made match stick rockets. I for the life of me can't remember where I saw the idea but as soon as I told him about it, he was all over it. It was a perfect activity during a Colorado blizzard. Didn't get a lot of good video but you get the idea.
Anyway, Jesse and the drywall couldn't work it out and he eventually kicked it out. He did make it work with another piece of drywall and they seemed happy in the end. Always remember, there are other fish in the sea. With a new swing in his step, I showed him the potential of the branch I had discovered and just as I suspected, work started on the catapult right away.
Jesse chose a black plastic spoon for the catapult sling. It was attached with electrical tape making sure that it was wrapped around the branch enough times to make it super sturdy avoid movement. This was a definitely a team effort and not something you would want to attempt alone. One person held the spoon on the branch while the other wrapped the tape.
Now, the tricky thing about this project was when the branch was pulled back, it didn't face the best direction and was somewhat close to our fence line with our neighbor. With that, we decided that the catapult payload of choice would ice cubes. They are easy to spot when launched yet leave no evidence when it goes over the fence.
After a few test runs, a few adjustments needed to be made. The angle of the sling needed to change in order to get it to launch farther out rather than straight up. Jesse melted the plastic to curve the spoon and voila! He did get a bit forceful while molding the plastic so it cracked but it still works great!
Sometimes you just sit back, relax and enjoy your catapult.
This was a fun project and very budget friendly. I would say if everything goes well and you don't have unexpected surprises come up, two people could easily finish it in a weekend with the right tools.
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