Re: Handicapped Golfball Launcher

shb*NO*SPAM*@comporium.net (Si Ballenger) writes:


Take a couple of wheels/tires off an old wheelchair.
Hook them up to a pair of direct drive motors, you probably need
motors that spin faster than the wheelchair motors could provide,
but salvaging the batteries from the old wheelchair might work.
Mount the wheels so they lie in the same plane, rather than parallel
to each other.
Separate the edges of the wheels by a little less than the diameter
of a golf ball.
Use a strip of metal to make a small chute that will let the golf
ball roll down and in between the two tires.
Crank the motors up to warp speed, let the golf ball roll, make
sure your life and health insurance are paid up, and see what happens.

There is a web page out there somewhere that shows this method
being used to shoot two-by-four's (for those of you not in the U.S.,
that is a piece of lumber about 4cm x 9 cm x 300 cm) off to the horizon.

Built a mechanical method of letting you control positioning and
speed and you should have yourself a fine golf ball driver.
Putting with something like this would be a little more difficult :)

You might also go look at the machine used to fire balls for batting
practice, that might give you some other ideas.

Disclaimer: I've never done anything like this, and if you hurt
someone with this idea then it isn't my fault.