Quaddy's ridiculous pumpkin throwing catapult thread! [Now with Video!]

[Quaddy]

A young man sits in his living room. It just so happens that today, July 16th, is a date of no special significance. though it was 17 and a half years ago that he was given life, it is only today that he vaguely hopes internet strangers will give him money.

Ok so in my life there are two passions: Homestuck and throwing pumpkins as far as physically possible. I figured I'd mix them! I'm chief engineer on a high school trebuchet (trebuchet = gravity powered catapult) team that has gotten first and second place at the World Championship Punkin Chunkin. Anyway, this is my senior year of high school so our team is going big to leave a mark with our last year in youth division. We've been throwing 1000 feet, this year we fully intend to throw 2000 feet!

Anyway that goal means we will be spending rather more money, about 2500 dollars. So, we decided to try fundraising with an indiegogo!

Fundraising page: http://igg.me/p/76014?a=860479

Whether or not this thread gets a lot of traffic, I'll be posting updates here on the machine. Also, the Mythbusters will be at the Punkin Chunkin filming for discovery channel. If this fundraiser works, I will do my best to make as many homestuck references on national television as physically possible.

So, donate, or spread the word on the tumblrs! Even clicking the link and not watching the video or reading anything helps! You guys are awesome, I'm sorry to shamelessly self-promote here!

>Internet: point and laugh at Quaddy for expecting the Internet to be generous towards mildly pointless causes.

Also, here's a slow motion video of our old machine throwing a frozen waterballoon about a thousand feet:


And here's a video of the scale model of the new machine:

[Quaddy]

I'm happy to say that now if you donate 25$ to this worthy cause, you get a handheld model of our double sling concept with which you can throw a bouncy ball around 400 feet. Here's a video of what it loolks like in action:

I'm sad to say I now sound like an npr pledge drive announcer, but such is life.

[crypticMushroom]

You know this is probably a good place to look for support, the Homestuck fans are so crazy it might just work!

Also, could you post a video of the sling where we can actually see the device you're holding and what it's doing?

[crypticMushroom]

I have a knack for finding threads that suddenly die after I show up. :/

[Edrobot]

What pumpkin catapult?

[Quaddy]

Anyway, we built it and took first place with 1526 feet. If anyone from here donated, thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC4T7...layer_embedded

[Dentrala]

Wow. That shot was unreal. Great work mate, I'm sure you're pretty proud.