The Sportsman Challenge - April 2024

[Brock O Lee]

Day 26

The Sportsman supervised a science school project I am doing with my Gr 8 daughter.

She has to build a Middle Age siege weapon, and do a video and write-up. She chose to build a trebuchet, one of those sling catapults that was used to break down castle walls.

Naturally this means I am researching, designing and building a trebuchet, while my girl passes the tools and does the odd jobs... The video and write-up is on her!

Figuring out how to make a counterweight


It is surprisingly tricky to get right, you have to tune the arm length, the counterweight mass, the sling length and the sling release trigger just right to get a good projectile trajectory.





The final product. This one works surprisingly well after a bit of fiddling. No the Sportsman did not go flying.


A big old girl in action...

[Jeffjeeptj]

Opening one of those insulated envelope bags.  The glue that sealed the flap was resisting wife’s attempts to pull it open.  Sportsman to the rescue.  Had to be careful to not cut the contents.

 

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[Canuckdad]

DAY 26!!! Getting this little mints open can be tough, but not for my Sportsman

Because I have no access to internet on the weekend I am posting days 27 and 28 now

had to do a few repairs in the last couple days

[MasterofDisaster]

Day 25

Bought a new belt, Sportsman took  care of the labels.

[AndyAaron]

Day 26

Just another apple…

[marlowe221]

Day 26

I used the flat head driver to help take down a poster holder at the office today.

 

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Not pictured: the poster holder.

[Brock O Lee]

Day 27

Cutting open strawberry guava's, from the Feijoa's in the garden.

[Jeffjeeptj]

Brock - sorry for the late comment on your daughter’s science project.  It looks great!  I love working with my grand-kids on stuff like this.  Did you have any detailed plans or simply a photo?

Here I plan on learning a new skill, darning my socks.  My grandmother used to do darning and it seriously extended the life of my socks.  Sportsman is opening the bags containing the mushroom, needles and yarn.  Hopefully I won't poke my eye out

 

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[AndyAaron]

Day 27

I took Sportsman for a trip. You can expect some photos of nice western European cities in next few days

[nate j]

You can expect some photos of nice western European cities in next few days

[marlowe221]

Day 27

I’m at a hotel this evening because I am in Washington state for a professional conference.

 

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Only use today was using the blade to open a pack of chewing gum.

[Brock O Lee]

Brock - sorry for the late comment on your daughter’s science project.  It looks great!  I love working with my grand-kids on stuff like this.  Did you have any detailed plans or simply a photo?

Here I plan on learning a new skill, darning my socks.  My grandmother used to do darning and it seriously extended the life of my socks.  Sportsman is opening the bags containing the mushroom, needles and yarn.  Hopefully I won't poke my eye out

Thanks Jeff!

No detailed plans, we kinda winged it with the materials we had available. We ended up with the critical dimensions in the screenshot I posted. We had to adjust where we hanged the counterweight on the arm for max leverage, hence the extra hole, and also had to increase the counterweight mass. The tin is full of nails and rocks.

We had to tune the sling release rod angle at the other end of the arm to release at the correct 45' angle. Without that mechanism the projectile hits the ground right in front.

"Darning" - interesting, I learned a new word. I'd love to see how that turns out. 

[Brock O Lee]

Day 28

I noticed this rusty galvanised washer on my box trailer. I tried to be clever and measure the bolt size with the awl, so that I could fetch the right size spanners from the garage to replace the washer.



I was out by a mm, and had to walk again...  but I got there eventually.

[MasterofDisaster]

Day 26

Used the knife to remove the plastic on a Listerine bottle

[Jeffjeeptj]

Wife got a new pocketbook that had a tag on it.  The tag thread needed to be cut in lieu of breaking.  Sportsman to the rescue. Another “hero” moment!

[AndyAaron]

Day 28

Bruges, Belgium

Very nice city with lot of history.


We arrived yesterday and went today for a walk. I am not sure what are the rules here about carrying knives so I tried to take some pictures secretly

Saint Saviour’s Cathedral, cathedral with one of the most beautiful interiors I’ve seen…










We took a boat trip too…




And naturally downed some beers…


We had a great time!

[Brock O Lee]

Day 29

The Sportsman is on package duty again...


We were a non-stick Teflon skillet family until recently. I discovered carbon steel and love it so much that I bought another to replace our old banged-up non-stick skillet.

Carbon steel buddies, Sportsman for reference.

[Brock O Lee]

Day 28

Bruges, Belgium

Beautiful scenery Andy! 

[marlowe221]

Day 28

Traveling today, on the way home from my conference!

 

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[AndyAaron]

Beautiful scenery Andy! 

Thank you!
I forgot to post the most important photo

[Jeffjeeptj]

Very nice photos Andy.  Wife and I love the European historical buildings.

We buy organic oatmeal because of the industry practice of spraying the  non-organic plants with glyphosate at the end of the growing season to speed harvesting.  Disregarding the “do not cut” instructions on the box. 

 

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[MasterofDisaster]

Beautiful scenery Andy! 

 

[MasterofDisaster]

Day 27

Not much usage today, but the Sportsman came along walking the dogs.

[Canuckdad]

DAY 29!!!!!

Sweet!

[AndyAaron]

Day 29

Still in Bruges. We took a different walk today, with less tourists.
The weather was great! We started in the old city centre…




… and walked through the streets to see some old churches…


…and towers…


… and nice neighborhoods…


When we came to the bank of the river with mills, Sportsman got really tired and needed some refreshments…


Only after that we could continue our walk



 


After passing mills we turned back and walked through the city centre to get our car…


We left Bruges for good and drove 3,5 hours to Amsterdam. We arrived there in the evening so we just had a nice dinner in the hotel.
Since the Sportsman didn’t do anything today I asked the waiter not to open a bottle of beer for my wife and I did it myself


You can expect some pictures from Amsterdam tmr. Good night!

[Brock O Lee]

Day 29

Still in Bruges.

...

You can expect some pictures from Amsterdam tmr. Good night!

🤩 

[Brock O Lee]

Day 30

Say cheese!

[marlowe221]

Day 29

More vegetable duty for the Sportsman. Frozen broccoli this time.

 

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One more day to go! I have really enjoyed watching all the great pictures roll in. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s final thoughts tomorrow too.

[Jeffjeeptj]

Andy, Great pictures.  Really enjoying them.

Thsnks.

[Jeffjeeptj]

This is the last day of the Sportsman Challenge for me.  I will be going straight into the Explorer Challenge.  A bit of a transformation.  So, here is the Sportsman in front of an old Transformer in one position that my son had.  Tomorrow the Transformer will change along with the SAK on a different thread.

 

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