Trebuchet Business Card - Trebucard

The Trebucard is a business card sized mini trebuchet. It is designed to fire jumbo paper clips and uses 16 pennies as a counter-weight. Unlike a traditional trebuchet the Trebucard uses the surface it is resting on as a pivot rather than being mounted on a frame.

See a demonstration of the card here:

And here is a video that shows you how to make your own:

Download the design files for the card in whatever format is easiest for you to work with.

If you have any problems with the Instructables attachments the files are also available here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16735

The materials you need are:

• 16 pennies (or other similarly sized coins)
• Some tape
• At least one 'jumbo' sized paper clip
• Some cardboard or thick paper

The easiest source for the card material is the cardboard from things like cereal boxes.

The tools you need are:

• Scissors
• A sharp knife
• A printer or other method to transfer the design to the material.

You could probably make it with only one of those two cutting tools, but it is easiest if you have both.

Now we need to transfer the design onto the cardboard. If you want to add your own text and graphics to make the card an actual business card then this would be a good step to do so.

The easiest way to transfer the design would be to just print it directly on the cardboard, but most printers cannot handle that thick of a material, so here are some potential alternatives.

You could print on a normal piece of paper and glue it to the cardboard.
You could cut it out from the normal paper and trace the design onto the cardboard.
Or you could use some kind of trace paper or pen with heavy bleed to trace the design onto the cardboard through the paper.

One thing that you want to check in all cases is that the design is not being scaled to a different size when you are printing it. The overall design should be 3.5" by 4"

Now we just need to cut along all the solid lines. The dotted lines are where folds need to be made, so you don't cut the dotted lines.

The outside shape can be quickly cut with scissors, but the inside lines are more easily done with a sharp hobby knife.

It may be helpful to make some slight notches along the 4 dotted lines that touch the outside of the card to make folding along that line easier.

The two sides of the card fold up at right angles and the two smaller tabs that were cut out with a hobby knife fold in towards the center and interlock.

This should form a sturdy shape that will rock on the table much like a rocking chair.

The counterweights are made by wrapping two stacks of 8 pennies with tape. I don't think it is very critical to use a certain kind of tape or wrapping technique, but I usually use Scotch tape and wrap them along the outside and just bunch up the excess tape along the edges.

The coin size isn't extremely crucial so small coins in other countries will also probably work. Just use however many coins it takes to make a stack that will fit firmly in the slots at the front of the card.

Then you simply insert your stack of coins into the slots you cut out of the card. They go in on the side opposite of the way the other parts are folded.

The coins should be a firm fit because they need to be held in place as the card moves around quickly.

The  two loops that you put on either side of a stack of paper when using a paper clip need to be bent apart slightly. Then you just set it on a surface with the largest loop propped up in the air.

I'm not sure if there is much variation from brand to brand, but the box of paper clips pictured above is the brand that I used when designing the trebuchet.

You could probably make your own sling if you wanted to shoot other small objects, and you can also attach objects to the paper clip to fire them.

With the large loop of the paper clip propped up in the air you want to insert the small tab at the end of the card into the top loop of the paper clip. Be sure the loop is tight up against the tab on the card, then you simply allow it to rock forward and throw the paperclip. It should shoot somewhere around 8-10 feet.

A grippy rubber surface provides the best performance, but it can also be more temperamental to fire on such a surface.

You can adjust the loop on the paper clip (or the shape of the tab on the card ) and make it smaller or larger to alter the trajectory of the trebuchet.

A more detailed video of the operation of this card can be found here:

Once you are done playing with the card you can simply fold it up to the size of a standard business card.

First you need to remove the counterweights by just pulling them out. Then you unlink the center arms and fold them back to the sides. Then the entire sides can fold in, and your paper clip ammo can be used to help hold it all closed.