Blog
Posted by Matt
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news
With Imagine RIT looming this Saturday, we are pretty much ready to exhibit some of our most popular works (aside from MPS due to time and space issues). We've gotten Melon Felon out, and started popping sling lines and shooting 50% further than ever before, an encouraging sign. We have ordered some 1/8" Amsteel Blue (actually orange this time in a hope that it shows up on video) for both Melon Felon and Janus, the two machines we are bringing. We also have a large, growing collection of roughly 1 pound ice balls in the freezer which we will be launching with Janus, potentially over 1000 feet! If you are in the Rochester area, come and check it out! Saturday, May 1, 2010, from 10AM - 5PM. We plan to shoot all day, as long as nothing breaks.
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| Apr 28, 2010
Posted by Matt
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news
We have finished building Janus, the Floating Axle King Arthur/ Floating Everything Whipper (FAKA/FEW) Hybrid. The frame, which was finished several weeks ago, got stained similarly to Medieval Postal Service, and we got the steel and aluminum ordered. Last weekend (March 13-14) was spent in Buffalo machining and welding. Thanks again to Great Lakes Pressed Steel for helping us out with getting materials and for shop space to work. We were not able to make the arm at this time since the aluminum for that had not come in yet, but Jason took care of that later in the week and brought everything to Rochester Friday evening. Chris and Matt took the trebuchet out yesterday for initial testing and verification of a few systems, more on that will follow in a day or two.
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| Mar 21, 2010
Posted by Matt
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news
We have completed construction of the frame for our new trebuchet, Janus. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures yet as the lighting in the workshop is still being installed, but we are moving forward. In a few weeks we hope to have the metals we need in, and we will go make those parts and then prepare for testing as soon as the weather breaks, which should be sometime in mid-to-late March. We are looking for some terrific distances, perhaps we can even launch a 2-pound projectile 1000 feet! It's not likely, but you never know...700+ feet should certainly happen.
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| Feb 21, 2010
Posted by Matt
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news
Team Urban Siege has a new winter project. It seems that we cannot go too long without building a new machine, and this winter is no exception. The design? A Floating Axle King Arthur/Floating Axel Whipper trebuchet. That's right, we are finally going to try out a whipper design. But this trebuchet is also intended to help us try some small changes we are considering making to Medieval Postal Service, hence the King Arthur mode. Actually, there are a number of critical points that this new machine is intended to address:
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| Feb 08, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, WCPC
So it has been nearly a month since we returned from Delaware and the World Championships of Punkin' Chunkin'. It is time to really condense down what happened.
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| Dec 07, 2009
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, launches, WCPC
Well we finished setting up Medieval Postal Service today with fairly little incident. Really the only issue was that it took a while for us to get inspected, as the inspector likely forgot our request with all the other stuff he was undoubtably having to deal with. No big deal, we got inspected and got our first shot off around 4:15 PM (though we were ready to start firing ops around 2:30). A decent shot, but the one 25 minutes after it was even better, certainly a 1000+ foot shot. We are expecting stiff competition this year, as several teams from last year have made massive improvements to their machines, First in Fright and Hokie Hurler being among them. Shenanigans II should also be right in the mix, assuming they can get off reliable shots. They are there and set up, but we have yet to see John or Tom. Pumpkin Hammer is on site, unfortunately firing as a standard HCW this year due to some major problems that cropped up during their testing this fall. Yankee Siege looks pretty strong, and Merlin showed up late in the afternoon. This year Chris Gerow also brought the 3-time World Champion (albeit a few years removed) King Arthur, which historically shot right around the distances we are probably looking at. Like I said, it should be and interesting competition.
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| Nov 05, 2009
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, WCPC
Team Urban Siege has made it down to Delaware and is beginning to set up Medieval Postal Service. We were able to move right in to our pit as soon as we arrived around 3:20 after leaving Rochester at 7:20AM. This is despite the large amount of rain that had fallen on the field over the last week or so, prompting remarking of the pit locations at least once. Still, all was fairly dry once we got on-site today. Tomorrow we plan to finish setup, as we were only able to get the base put together before we ran out of light. Plus, we were tired after almost 7.5 hours of driving and an early morning to boot.
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| Nov 04, 2009
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, news
Well, Medieval Postal Service is done with testing for 2009. We had a fairly successful testing period, despite the constant rain which washed out several days that could have been used to test even further. Nevertheless, the machine is firing at full capacity, and so far is not trying to destroy itself on each shot like last year. This in itself is good news. This weekend we will be packing up the machine for transportation to Delaware. The plan is to leave early Wednesday morning so that we get down to the field around 3 or 4 PM, and get our pit assignment and a few other little details sorted out before we begin to set up on Thursday. This year we ought to be able to shoot some test shots on Thursday, which will be good since we will be able to make sure we are in shape to compete starting Friday.
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| Oct 28, 2009
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, launches
We have gotten Medieval Postal Service set up and firing again in preparation for the 2009 World Championships of Punkin' Chunkin'. This past summer was spent doing a lot of rebuilding, modifying, and redesigning. After all this work, we took the machine down to our range on September 19, and began set-up. The weekend of the 26th was mostly a washout, and we got very little accomplished, but this past weekend we finished up and actually took some shots with a little counterweight and our 4-pound medicine ball, just to make sure that the modifications all work properly. They appear to be performing as well, and the three low-power shots we took were all very impressive. One shot actually nailed a tree dead center and came shooting back out of the treeline, which was an amusing moment.
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| Oct 07, 2009
Posted by Matt
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news
This past Saturday we spent some time at Great Lakes Pressed Steel straightening the tracks to Medieval Postal Service. Both tracks had a bow in them from the original welding process last fall, and so we had to be very careful when clamping the carriages to the main axle. The tracks both bowed inward along their length such that the center of the tracks was about 1.5" tighter than at the ends. We had to adjust the carriage spacing so that the wheels were not too tight in the center, but still were not in danger of falling off the tracks. This took quite a bit of time to get right, and was an issue we were not happy about. We lived with it for 2008, luckily without too much trouble, but this issue did not help matters when we misfired our last shot at Delaware.
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| May 26, 2009
