pic: Team 48 - Lock n' Load

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Orion.DeYoe

That's impressive. What are you doing in terms of spring force? What's the weight of the ram? What's the starting gap between the ram and the ball (if any)?

Currently, there are two www.centuryspring.com #81153 springs on there, providing about 50 lb. of force each in the low power setting, and 80 lb. of force each in the high power setting.

The high power shot is selected by extending the 2 3" stroke cylinders, which adds 3" of pre-load onto the springs.

The motor/gearbox pulls the springs back to firing position (roughly 6" of pullback). When the launcher fires, the majority of the stroke takes place with the ball in contact with the ram.

The ram is 1" round igus aluminum rod with a McMaster 3/8" wide, 20 DP, 14.5 PA rack gear affixed. The rod slides through two open-top igus linear bearing pillow blocks. I actually don't know how much the ram weighs. The overall claw/launcher combo projects to weigh around 35 lbs.

Originally Posted by cbale2000

It reminds me of a MK19 grenade launcher...

I was kinda thinking a .30 or .50 cal machine gun, but I think I like yours better. :-)