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How much weight can a metal stud hold?

How much weight can a 1 inch steel rod hold?

  • I have an old weight bar that I'm thinking about using for the bar that holds the arm and the counter-weight on a trebuchet. Its going to be flinging 25 lb pumpkins so it needs to support a substantial amount of weight. The weight is going be held by the middle of the bar and the ends are held in by 4x6 boards. The bar is 1 inch in diameter and 5ft 4 inches long. I don't know the alloy but I want to know an educational guess as to how much weight it can support without bending completely. Can anyone please help?

  • Answer:

    Short answer, as you describe the setup that bar is entirely too slender. Think: if you want to throw a good distance you need 100 times as much counterweight as the pumpkin: 2500 pounds. You could get away with half as much, but you won't throw far. And that would still bend the bar. If you support the ends of the bar quite close to the arm it might not bend, maybe 6 inches or so. But an unsupported span of over 5 feet is way beyond reason. What you need to do is research trebuchets in depth. They may look simple but building a good one is anything but simple.

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You need to keep in mind that the energy imparted by a counterweight is a product of its mass and the height you drop it from. For a small trebuchet, like you are planning, it might be easier to replace it with a pulley and a couple of guys pulling a rope.

Short answer, as you describe the setup that bar is entirely too slender. Think: if you want to throw a good distance you need 100 times as much counterweight as the pumpkin: 2500 pounds. You could get away with half as much, but you won't throw far. And that would still bend the bar. If you support the ends of the bar quite close to the arm it might not bend, maybe 6 inches or so. But an unsupported span of over 5 feet is way beyond reason. What you need to do is research trebuchets in depth. They may look simple but building a good one is anything but simple.

The Legendary Masked Akitist

You need to keep in mind that the energy imparted by a counterweight is a product of its mass and the height you drop it from. For a small trebuchet, like you are planning, it might be easier to replace it with a pulley and a couple of guys pulling a rope.

aam641

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