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Juggernaut 2 is laid out for assembly.
I have talked to many Siege Engine builders in person, and via email. They come from all sorts backgrounds, with the only real common denominator being a deep seated need to chuck stuff really far.

I have also found that despite this, these Siege Engine builders tackle the problem of creating machines in very different ways. Some delight in historical accuracy. Others enjoy that historic element, but use modern shortcuts when appropriate. Still others ignore traditional methods, and just hack things together with whatever is handy.

Our Siege Engine Building Philosophy definitely lands in this last category. Despite having a team chock full of high power Software Engineers living in Eastern MA, my entire team seems to delight in rescuing lumber from the side of the road, pallets from behind factories, and scavenging bearings and bike bits from whoever doesn't want them anymore. We have spent hours wandering around scrap yards looking for that perfect bit of rusted metal to solve some imagined problem.

As team captain, I have an interest in both the physics, and the history of the different machines. I enjoy The Book of the Crossbow and other historical works. When it comes to replicating those ancient engineers, however, I have no problem substituting in a missing part with something not originally designed for siege craft.

Despite my historical interest, you will see in the machine the Pumpkin Putter a truly modern machine designed specifically to satisfy Roger's hankering need for a direct-drive pumpkin. Our continued plans to perfect this machine, despite rather sad performance, certainly expresses the most important reason for us to build a machine.

A machine is only as good as the joy you get from it. For us, the journey in designing and building the machine is surpassed only in the the exhilaration of interactively chucking something some vast distance.

You can see video of us describing why and how we build catapults from when we were interviewed by History Channel


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Last Modified: 05/10/09