[fire roaring]
- Here in The Forge, we have seen smiths make hundreds
of weapons throughout history.
But now, we're asking them to build some of the biggest,
most complex, and terrifying weapons
ever seen on the battlefield.
The ballista, a battering ram.
[all shout]
- You guys have taken the castle.
With $20,000 on the line, four teams of expert builders,
featuring all kinds of skill sets,
will enter into a completely different arena,
where they will be put to the test to construct
some of the most difficult weapons
ever seen on "Forged in Fire."
- Oh my god, come on.
This is driving me absolutely insane.
- Holy smoke!
- Whoo!
- This is Instruments of Death.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- We are The Flying Monkeys.
I'm Daniel Fagergren.
I'm the chief ranger at Zion National Park.
And this is Kory Heaton.
And he's a cabinet maker.
And this is Brad Groesbeck.
And he's a blacksmith and farrier.
We're all type A personalities.
But I think it's an advantage, because we're
going to get things done.
- Bring it.
♪ ♪
- I'm Mark. This is Freeland.
This is Eli.
We are The Thermites. Ther--
- Thermites, Thermites, Thermites.
- Oh God, we're going to have to practice that one.
- I am a glassblower.
And I design and build furniture.
Eli is a contractor and also a glassblower.
And Freeland is the fabrication lab manager.
It's always been my dream to be on "Forged in Fire."
So if we were to come out with a win,
it would be up there with my wedding.
But I can't tell you guys that it would be
the happiest day of my life.
My wife would kill me.
♪ ♪
- We are Sawdust and Sparks.
I'm Jared.
I'm an engineer by day and a woodworker by night.
And this is Rich.
He's a farrier.
And Brandon, he's a homesteader and a jack-of-all-trades.
$20,000 would be great.
We can all use a little bit more
to grow our shop, to do stuff with the family.
We're in this to win it.
♪ ♪
- My name's Josh.
This is Coleman.
This is Trace. And we are...
all: Thru-Tang Clan.
I think we're going to win because these two are
both multifaceted fabricators.
I'm working on a mechanical engineering degree.
And furthering our skills is what we're truly here for.
- And Instagram followers.
[laughing]
- Bladesmiths, blacksmiths, woodworkers,
metalworkers, and engineers, gentlemen, welcome
to Instruments of Death.
♪ ♪
Normally in our forge, we bring in bladesmiths
to forge knives and swords.
But this is Instruments of Death.
And in this competition, we brought you guys in,
teams of expert builders consisting of engineers,
carpenters, metalworkers, and so on,
because we'll be asking you to build some
of the biggest and notorious weapons
ever used on the battlefield.
We're talking about massive siege weapons that
altered the course of history.
Now, we're starting off with four very talented teams.
But only one team can leave here with the first ever
Instruments of Death champion title
and get that team check for $20,000.
Now, since this is Instruments of Death,
everything is bigger.
And we decided that in order to find out who's moving forward
in the next round that we're going
to put your weapons through a huge round of testing.
Now, this first round of testing
is all about the gauntlet.
♪ ♪
This terrifying test will examine
every aspect of your weapon's construction all at once.
Now gentlemen, to kick things off,
we asked you to build the war hammer
from the "Forged in Fire" vault before you got here.
And we asked you guys to build your weapons
following these parameters.
Your hammerhead must feature a square face
on one side, along with a rear spike on the other.
And for the handle, it must have
two langet covering no less than half
the shaft on either side.
All right, Jared, your team is up first.
Please step forward.
Tell us about your build.
- The challenge had some difficulties.
We had some things to work through.
- And so we ended up having an issue
getting the hole centered.
So we decided early on to scrap that one and start over.
It definitely affected our morale.
But the second one came out really nice.
And we were able to make that one work.
And we're really proud of it.
- All right, please present your work.
♪ ♪
Nice.
Well, gentlemen, your hammer looks menacing.
But we've got to find out how it performs in the gauntlet.
♪ ♪
Jake, take it away.
- We're a little unsure about how it will perform.
We didn't want to do a ton of testing at home just
because we didn't want to damage anything
before we got here.
And hopefully, it'll perform well.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, I got to say nice job.
A war hammer fan.
And I had fun swinging this one.
You got a little bit of marking here on the top of the shaft
and on the head.
That's not a big deal though.
It's very minimal.
Good balance.
It was nice having this steel, everything nice and smooth
down here.
So when you swing, drawing it down.
Overall, I like it.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Flying Monkeys, please step forward.
So guys, I got to ask, why The Flying Monkeys?
- So there's a mesa that overlooks our community.
And during the 1950s, the government tested ejection
seats off the end of the mesa.
And they launched the monkeys off there.
And so we decided to go with that name.
- [laughs]
- Oh, that's rich.
All right, gentlemen, how did the build go for you?
- It was great. This was a lot of fun.
Brad made the Damascus.
And then Kory worked on the hickory handle.
But we ran into a few challenges on the hammerhead.
I had to heat-treat it twice, because the first time
around when file tested it, the spike was soft in spots.
So I reheated it and quenched it again.
And it turned out a lot harder.
There you go, "Forged in Fire."
- All right, gentlemen, please reveal your work.
♪ ♪
Ooh, that is a beautiful hammer.
But we've got to find out if it's going
to stand up to the gauntlet.
You ready?
- Let's do it. - Go ahead, Jake.
- If there's anything on this hammer that could fail,
it would probably be the spike.
I had to heat-treat it twice.
And it could crack.
And that does concern me a little bit.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
- [whistles]
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
- Nice work.
♪ ♪
- All right, Flying Monkeys, good job.
You survived.
I like what you did here.
Structurally everything is fine.
I like the extra effort on doing the laminate steel.
The Damascus on here is a nice touch.
Penetrated very well.
The only bad thing I have to say, when I'm hitting,
it rubs right here on your palms.
So I get a bit of a hot spot there.
But overall, nice job.
both: Thank you.
- Thru-Tang Clan, you ready? Your team's next.
- We are. - Please step forward.
♪ ♪
Now, gentlemen, how'd it go for you?
- It went really well.
We made two of them.
[laughs]
- Our first try out at the langets was a Damascus billet.
And that didn't work out.
- It's 4:45 in the morning.
Like, "Oh, man, we got to like scramble,
like langet material, langet, go, go, go, go."
Thankfully have this piece of forklift blade.
So a little cutting, a little grinding, and off we go.
- We put it together 30 minutes before we left
for the airport to come here.
So we had a lot of failures.
But in the end, it turned out good.
- Very proud of what we did though.
both: Thru-Tang, Thru-Tang.
- All right, please present your hammer.
♪ ♪
Very nice, gentleman.
J., go ahead.
♪ ♪
- Our biggest concern would be breaking the handle.
We do have a little thinner langet.
So hopefully it can withstand everything.
- Anything could happen.
J. is so tough on the things.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Oh.
♪ ♪
- Awesome. Good job, guys.
♪ ♪
- All right, Thru-Tang Clan, nice job.
Your hammerhead swung beautifully.
Your tip worked beautifully on the steel
as far as piercing it and ripping it
open further on the way out.
The handle is well done.
The only thing I don't like is these langets.
Normally these actually have a structural function.
Yours isn't connected to the hammer physically at all.
It's just wrapped over it.
And these right here aren't inset.
They're actually springing away because they're
very thin steel.
And every time I strike or break something,
that material is getting trapped between these langets
and the handle as well.
So that is an issue.
But overall nice job.
I liked it. - Thank you.
- Thanks. - Thanks.
- All right, Thermites, please step down.
♪ ♪
All right, gentlemen, how'd the build go for you?
- It went pretty well.
- Yes!
- We got the hammer forged out.
- I knew I spent a lot of time carving that handle and making
it feel comfortable.
The langets are welded.
I had a vision, too, for that texture on the hammer.
And it turned out exactly the way I wanted.
♪ ♪
- I think that's about as good as it gets.
- All right, gentlemen, let's see your work.
♪ ♪
That is a beautiful hammer.
But can it function and survive the gauntlet?
You guys ready? - Yes.
- Yeah.
- All right, J., go ahead.
- I'm concerned with the tip.
It's the only one that has a curve.
You don't want to be the team that
did the one weird thing and then that's
the thing that sends you home.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
- Nice.
- [grunts]
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, I got to say I like swinging this one.
It was nice.
Your hammerhead, very simple, but very functional.
Langets, everything's flush and tight the way
you blend it into the head.
Very nice job.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
♪ ♪
- I'm definitely feeling nervous.
At this point, it's out of our hands and in the judges'.
It's really going to come down to the finer details.
But we'll have to see.
- Well, gentlemen, I got to say, all 12 of you
should be extremely proud of your work.
But in this competition, we only
have room for three teams on the top of the hill
for the next round, which means one team will
be exiting this competition.
Now, after deliberation, the judges
did make a final decision.
And the team leaving this competition is...
♪ ♪
Thru-Tang Clan.
Unfortunately, guys, your weapon did not make the cut.
And Dave Baker is going to tell you why.
- All right, Thru-Tang Clan, you gave
us an amazing war hammerhead.
But those langets are killers.
They're already starting to peel off the top.
That's going to be a hand slicer coming up.
And that's why we let you go.
- Thank you.
- Well, gentlemen, unfortunately, your time
in this competition has ended.
But before you guys go, I want to ask you to step forward
so we can shake your hands.
- Good fight, man.
- Appreciate it.
- We got booted for the tiniest little detail.
And for the rest of my life I'm going to be like,
"Laces out, Marino, laces out."
I'm just like kicking myself for like forever.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, welcome to the build site.
This shop here is loaded with woodworking and metalworking
tools, as well as everything you'll need to build
your instruments of death.
Now, gentlemen, I told you before,
we had big things to come in this competition.
And as you can see here, we weren't kidding.
♪ ♪
This is the largest, in size and weight,
weapon we've ever asked anybody to build in our competition.
In this second round, your task is
to build an instrument of destruction that can take
down what's under this tarp.
♪ ♪
A castle door.
- Yeah.
[laughter]
- Your job in the next six hours
is to build a battering ram.
- All right.
- The battering ram,
the granddaddy of all siege engines.
Believed to be used by the Assyrians
some 3,000 years ago,
the design of the battering ram originally started out
as a log carried by soldiers with the goal
of battering down doors, gates, walls, you name it.
As fortifications evolved, so did the battering ram.
The addition of steel casings on the head of the ram,
larger wheels to make it more mobile,
grooves to keep fallen objects from hitting the soldiers,
and even making them fireproof.
Imagine being the soldier at this castle.
Suddenly there's a knock on the door.
You look off the wall, there's a battering ram.
Now, this is a machine designed to create
thousands of pounds of force in one
small spot against your gate.
Ranging from only a couple of feet
long to over 100 feet, the battering ram
is one of the most diverse siege engines in history,
and our builders are going to have a lot of designs
to choose from when they come up with their plan.
- Now gentlemen, we've got two stipulations for you.
Your battering rams must have wheels,
and you have to have some sort of forged element
attached to the battering ram.
- A castle door is not like your interior bathroom door.
I mean, it's built to stop people
from using a battering ram.
It's going to be a challenge.
- Now you will have six hours to accomplish this task.
At the three-hour mark, the judges
will be coming over to each team to inspect your work.
But there is a catch.
At any given point, only two members of your team
can be in the workshop working on your battering ram,
but you can tag team out with that spare guy as many or as
few times as you'd like.
Now, when the six hours is complete,
all three team members will operate it and attempt to bash
through the castle door.
And this is all about speed.
Because whichever team takes the longest
to get through the door will be eliminated
from the competition, and you will not be joining us
in the third and final round.
- Six hours is not a lot of time.
In medieval times, when they did battering rams,
I don't think they did them in six hours,
but we have electricity, which they didn't have.
- I'll give you 10 minutes of preparation and planning time
to come up with a design.
So good luck because that time starts now.
♪ ♪
They've got six hours to get this done.
It's a tall order.
- Sometimes the best design is simple.
Don't overthink it, and then tweak it a little bit
as it's being made.
- Because, first of all, we need a good pressure
point at the end of the ram.
- I think a barrel tip, kind of like that.
- Well, I'm thinking of just a flat piece just bent at a 90.
- Are you thinking, like, a wedge?
- Yes, a wedge.
- Initially, I think the design of this
would be good for the battering ram is an arrowhead.
But Rich has this idea of making it a wedge,
kind of like an axe head.
I think that's a great idea because the whole weight
of the log and us pushing on it,
all of that force is going to go right into that wedge
just like you're swinging an ax
and hopefully, just fracture it open.
- Having a teammate with an engineering background
is paramount for this kind of competition.
- I think having background in "Dungeons and Dragons"
is probably even better.
[laughter]
- We need some sort of head on there.
- We can cut the end of that and just put the wedge on.
- You don't think having the actual wedge be a point?
- You're just doing a pierce.
If you do this, the chances of breaking that door are better.
- OK.
- Think about splitting wood.
- Freeland and I each have different ideas
of how we should design the head of the battering ram.
Freeland thinks a wedge.
I think that point is going to do more damage to that door.
So we need to figure out exactly what we think
is going to be the most damage-inflicting thing so
that everybody's on the same page
whenever we start the build.
♪ ♪
- So we want to get this up as high as we can
so we can get as much force.
- Our idea is to go simple.
An A-frame-type structure.
The ram attached to focal points
coming down and swinging.
So height's going to be key for this to work effectively.
- There'll be lots of audibles in this whole thing, I think.
- Yeah.
- It's going to be an interesting dynamic to see
how these guys work together.
- It's going to be controlled chaos
or is it going to go off the rails?
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
All right, gentlemen, design time is up.
The workshop is open.
- Go, go, go!
[laughter]
This is going to be interesting,
first time we've ever had large teams building together.
They had 10 minutes to come up with designs,
and it seems to me that everybody's designs
are a little bit different.
- Coming through.
Can't see very well.
- Now I don't know how often or how much these guys have
worked together, but if J. and I were actually
to work together in the same shop-- well, we-- more
than anything we'd probably bump into each other.
[saw whirring]
- Eli's a go-getter.
He works in construction; he gets things done.
Freeland is a planner, like I am.
I know that we're going to need to build the wheels,
and that's going to eat up 30 minutes of Eli's time.
And, by then, hopefully, we have a plan for how
to attach them to the base.
- This would be awesome if I had a compass.
- It comes to anything woodworking,
planning is pretty important.
So we need to get on the same page
before we start building things.
♪ ♪
- Kind of concerns me that Ther-Mighties here--
they're allowed to have two people in the shop,
and there's only been one person in the shop
from that team.
- Well, you've got your two partners
down there sitting at a table playing poker over here.
- Oh, Lord.
- We've got six hours to build a battering ram.
So Abraham Lincoln said that if you give him
three hours to chop down a tree,
he's going to spend the first two sharpening the axe.
You never just go in and just start cutting and winging it.
So I think that a little extra planning in the beginning
is going to go a long way as we get
further into this competition.
♪ ♪
- Good job, Jared.
- On our team I'm an engineer and the most
experienced woodworker.
Ow. [laughter]
Table.
And so anything that has to do with frames
and structures and wood, that's my wheelhouse.
And so first thing I'm going to do
is get that frame going together.
Got that one.
- We're working on the bottom frame.
Then, we're going to put the corners in.
Then, we're going to work on the top frame.
We're going to do all the side bracing.
And after the bracing, we're going
to start assembling the ram and getting the ram installed.
[drill whirring]
- When we're building this battering ram,
we have to keep in mind the motion of the battering ram.
It's going to be moving back and forth, like this,
which when you have a structure,
it's going to want to twist.
And so we have to compensate for that
by putting in diagonal braces.
The triangles are key because that
helps to distribute that load and keep those corners square.
♪ ♪
- This is by far the biggest challenge
we've asked anyone to do.
I wouldn't be surprised if any of our teams
are going to run to a bunch of issues.
- Here we go.
I've never built a battering ram before.
My team has never built a battering ram before.
But I've seen enough movies and I
have a general idea of what a battering ram looks like
and how they function.
And so we decided to start with our base and wheels
to establish a solid foundation.
Wheel.
I wouldn't put it on my Buick.
It'll do the job though.
- All right, gentlemen, one hour has elapsed.
You've got five hours left.
So we've got both Sawdust and Sparks
and the Flying Monkeys bringing all their frame work outside.
So we've got two teams in the assembly portion of
this build.
- Got the wheels done.
- These other guys are getting way ahead of us.
- This is one of those times when indecision
is worse than a bad decision.
- Freeland and I each have kind of different ideas
of how we should design the head of the battering ram.
- We're going to have to do probably something else;
it's costing us everything.
♪ ♪
- I'm also kind of still going with the idea of the wedge.
- Having had the opportunity to make
a couple of different types of siege engines,
I know that building something on this larger
scale with this time frame is no easy task.
But if they don't come up with a solid plan quickly,
the Ther-Mighties might be going
home sooner than they think.
- What do you want to do, man?
- I don't know.
We got to do something.
- We're just over an hour into our Instruments
of Death competition, and we've got two teams in the assembly
portion of this build.
- And then we got the Ther-Mighties that are still
trying to figure things out.
- These other guys are getting way ahead of us.
- You better get in there, because I'm gonna snake
you and get in there myself.
- Sometimes the best design is simple.
- Mm-hmm.
- Do you want to help me get this?
- They just got to figure out what
the task is, get it there.
And don't overthink it.
- We've already wasted an hour.
We just need to get started on the frame
and figure out some of the smaller details as we go.
- Very clever.
Ther-Mighties is doing lap joints.
And that's what you want to see because that's going
to give you structure that's not
going to allow things to bend.
- Like Lincoln Logs.
- Exactly.
The way you'd build a log cabin.
It's a solid design, especially since these things
are massive.
You need a strong structure so when they actually
put the battering ram onto that thing,
this whole frame just won't break in half.
- Can you guys hurry up?
Because I want to do some choppy cutty.
- Yep, we're going to leave this all down.
So I have experience building strong structures.
Time for the top frame.
My wife and I have five kids, and we have had to build
two sets of bunk beds.
And you've got to make them strong enough
to handle the abuse.
- So right now it seems like Sawdust
and Sparks is furthest along in their structure assembly.
From what you guys can see, what do you feel about it?
- 1, 2, 3, up.
- Looks like they're building a tiny home.
[laughs]
But that box design is a solid design.
- All right, we're up.
This structure is a little bit heavier than the bunk bed,
but I think we can compensate for that.
I think it's strong enough, Brandon.
- So used to when these guys are working
is hearing in the forges blasting,
the anvils ringing, and stuff.
Not so much wood saws and drivers going.
- I think we need to stay after hours
and make one of these things. - I think we should.
"Beat the Judges: Catapult Edition."
[laughs]
- A freak catapult accident.
- It's mostly straight.
- The Flying monkeys are working on the base
of their structure.
- Is that one good?
- Eh, you're not going to like it, cabinet man.
- [groans] Thought that was good.
I'm always against the clock because I'm
a self-employed cabinet guy.
But we have a total of six hours to do this.
And there's no calling clients and saying, "Hey,
we're running behind."
We're just out of the competition
if we don't get it done.
So we're working fast and working hard.
♪ ♪
- Mark.
- Yeah.
- The wheels were too thin, so I have to make them thicker.
- Yeah.
- It's frustrating to be two hours in,
and we're working on the wheels.
- Man!
- I know.
Calm down. - [laughs]
- Last week was my first time to be
in the same room as a forge.
I don't know enough to be scared.
I have no idea what's going on.
- Give it the business, Eli.
- Looks like Eli's getting to work on that metal tip.
- Freeland and I came to the agreement
that having that tiny point of impact,
it's going to break down some doors.
- I love seeing how hard Eli's working.
From the moment the clock started, he was
the first one in the workshop.
He's not a blacksmith.
He's now the one working on the forging element of this build.
- For all you blacksmiths at home watching this,
I just want y'all to know, this is my third time doing this.
- You look like a blacksmith.
- Thanks, buddy.
[laughter]
- The guy has a lot of grit in him.
- Hopefully, this is going to be what
will ram through that door.
- Good job, Rich.
- Well, it sounds like we got a farrier working on the shop
here. - Yep, sure do.
- For the front of our battering ram,
we are going to make a wedge because it will
split the door much easier.
And I feel like a spike could easily get stuck in the door.
- Nice technique, Rich.
I love it.
- Rich is a farrier by trade, and so he is going to be
doing all of our forging.
He is the one making that key part of the front
of our battering ram.
And it's great because he knows how to do that well.
He can put that together.
And Brandon, he is probably the best welder
of the three of us.
And he can weld everything together
so that it's solid and strong.
- Welding!
- The idea of having a chisel on the end of this
is not a bad idea because now you've got pressure
hitting a thin line, but it's not something
that's going to dig in.
- That's so smart.
It looks like all four of Flying Monkeys
wheels and axles are finished.
- Let's jack this thing up.
[drill whirring]
- I'm seeing that Sawdust and Sparks have
their structure almost done.
And so we need to mount the wheels
and get our frame built as quickly as possible.
- You're bleeding.
- How am I'm bleeding?
What the heck?
- What'd you do, Corey?
- I don't know.
Brad told me I was bleeding.
- Oh.
Oh, it's on your face? - Yeah.
- Jeez. - Sprung a leak.
- I have no idea.
- It's a flesh wound.
- The one advantage of having three people
is, while one's getting bandaged,
the other two can keep working.
- Yep.
[drill whirring]
- The Ther-Mighties are the only ones that
don't have a structure yet.
All they have is a base and wheels.
- Yeah.
- That's an issue.
- Starting off a little slow, but I
think that we got a good plan, and we're really moving now.
- Gentlemen, you guys have three hours remaining.
You're halfway through.
Ther-mighties, your guy's inspection is up first.
- And I'm feeling a little bit nervous.
We don't have a whole lot set up right now,
but hopefully, they see that we're on the right track.
- So how's it going?
- Really good, right?
- Well, look, I like the way you framed the base together.
- Yep.
- But I'm kind of wondering how you're going
to build this upper carriage.
- In wall construction, there's something
called the strongback.
And you put four verticals on there.
And we're just stacking up.
We can create the post, put a lintel
in to put the carrier beam up.
- Think it's going to hold the weight of this monster?
- I think we're going to put more weight onto it, actually.
- Are you?
- We might try and put some cinder blocks attached to it.
- Do the one-hit wonder? - Yeah.
That's the plan.
- You're gonna beef that up?
- Yeah.
That's the plan.
Well, with three hours left, it sounds
like you got a good plan.
But it's only three hours, you got some work to do, guys.
So good luck with that.
- He's going to be talking about the judges'
visit for a long time.
That's like meeting his heroes.
- [laughs] Yeah.
If they want to come back over here and do another visit,
you know, they can knock themselves out.
- Sawdust and Sparks, you guys are up next.
- Dang.
You look like you're framing a house.
- Oh, we want this to be strong.
- I mean, you've got it braced up really well.
- Yeah, and you've got a lot of room
to hang and swing that beam, which is going
to give you a lot of power.
The question is, how are you going to move this thing?
- Well, we're going to put some wheels on it for sure.
- Well, they're 10-inch wheels, but we're going
to go three on each side.
- OK.
- You got a ton of work and not a lot of time.
Good luck, guys.
- All right, thank you. - Thanks, guys.
- After talking to the judges we're pretty confident,
but we need to stay focused because there's
$20,000 at stake.
- All right, Flying Monkeys, guys, it's time
for your inspection.
- Hey, guys how you think it's going?
- Good, good.
- Doing well.
- You don't have a lot of height.
- Not yet.
Kory's working on these A-frames.
- Uh-huh.
- So these A-frames are going to be
held together by a beam going all the way down the center.
That's where we're going to hang the ram itself from.
And then we're going to have cross pieces
that tie them together and hold it
all structurally sound.
- You're familiar with what used to happen
to medieval churches, right?
- What's that?
They collapsed?
- Where the roof pushed the walls out.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Well, you guys really need to think about how you're going
to support this beast and really just put
your heads down and move fast. - Yeah.
- 'Cause you're running out of time,
and you've got a lot of work left.
- Yep.
- Yeah, we sure do. - Thanks, guys.
- Thank you.
- Good luck. - Thanks.
♪ ♪
- We gotta go over.
- Up, over, on.
- The other teams look like they
have got a little bit more done than us,
but I think that we have a plan.
And I think that things are going
to start coming along a little bit
faster, a little bit smoother.
- Looking great, guys.
It seems that the overplanning is really
paying off for Ther-Mighties.
- 1, 2.
- It might be one of those situations
where they plan things out enough to make up for the time
that it took to make the plan.
- You're amazing, Free.
- You are too.
- Hey, I know I was stressed out earlier,
but we're doing all right.
Feel really good about this. - It's all part of the games.
♪ ♪
- The hardest part of this challenge
is knowing that I can't go in there and help.
But I can cheerlead.
L-E-T-S G-O, let's go, let's go.
L-E-T-S G-O, let's go!
- Rah, rah, ree.
- Kick 'em in the knee.
♪ ♪
- Everyone, you guys are in the final hour
of this competition.
- [bleep]. I think we need to get our eyebolts in
and get the chains.
- We need a ladder.
- I hear "get the chains."
- Yeah.
I think we're going to see a beam in the air very soon.
- It is a critical moment in this build.
When these guys take the supports off the beam
and put all that weight on the structure, if it doesn't hold,
the whole thing could come tumbling to the ground.
All the work all for naught.
- And this is a build with the amount of time
left where there's no coming back.
- Come on.
- We might see our first fatality on this.
- Ha.
- Time is running out, and I'm getting really worried here.
Once we put this log up here, there's no going back.
So this could make or break it.
All right, this is it, man.
- Whew.
- OK.
- Moment of truth.
- Well, guys, we're in the final hour
here at the first ever
Instruments of Death competition.
Right now we've got three teams up here at the build site
building their battering rams, a critical moment in
this build.
- All right, this is it, man.
- When these guys take the supports off the beam
and put all that weight on the structure, if it doesn't hold,
the whole thing could come tumbling to the ground.
All the work all for naught.
- Ha. - Whew.
- OK.
[tense music]
- Yeah!
- It works!
Look! - Yeah.
- Huh?
- Wow.
- Nice.
- We got swinging.
- That is impressive.
- We got our first beam hung.
- OK, no more testing.
We're good.
♪ ♪
- Oh, yeah, Daniel.
- Flying Monkeys has me a bit confused right now.
- Yeah, exactly.
Put this entire piece together, right?
Hang this, and then worry about the tip.
Because honestly, just having a flat tip on this thing
is going to do some damage.
- But they do have to have a forged element.
- The most important element of the battering ram
is the tip.
- I'm building the cap for the front of the battering ram.
I'm going to mount the bit that I
forged earlier in the front of this plate
so it's protruding out.
The beam will house half of the shaft,
and then the rest of the shaft will be protruding
in front of the cap.
We're going to pierce right through it.
- Can you guys imagine being in a castle
the first time somebody ever used a battering ram?
It's a cop knock on steroids.
- Brad, good job.
- I'm very confident it's going to break down the door.
- Gentlemen, you're within the final 30 minutes.
- Oh, my god, come on.
- Now that we have the verticals up
and we've got the headers on the verticals,
we're ready to hang this beast.
To suspend the battering ram,
we are going to just wrap the chains around it
and screw them in straight to the post instead of worrying
about using eye hooks.
This is going to save us a lot of time,
and it's just as strong.
- Looking good.
- Oh, yeah, look at the tension on that chain.
- Holy smokes.
- Oh, there we go.
There goes one sawhorse.
- Moment of truth.
[grunts]
♪ ♪
- Hey, look at that; she dangles.
- Nice job.
Now quit screwing around and grab the chain saw!
- Go!
[laughter]
[chain saw whirring]
There we go; we got a wedge.
- You know, Sawdust and Sparks,
this is what I expected to see.
They've got a high enough structure,
and they're making a chisel point for the front.
Brilliant.
- Which way was up?
- Try the other way.
- Not that way.
- Yeah, try the other way.
- Our structure's solid.
Our log has a great tip on the end.
We're pretty confident we're going to destroy this door.
We are super excited to get into this testing,
but we have some time left.
So we're going to do some cool styling on it
to give it some character.
- They made a giant arrow.
- Oh, yeah, why not?
- They're showing off.
- They're really having fun now.
- You guys are ridiculous.
15 minutes left.
- Flying monkeys is really reaching for the sky here.
- Oh, my goodness, that's going to be tall.
- Do we want the rope or a chain?
- I would probably do rope.
- When you look at the two on the end,
you see all these cross braces.
There's a reason bridges look like that and not like that.
I understand where they're going.
They're just missing a lot of the parts they need.
- Good thing I was a Boy Scout.
That tightens on itself.
- Yeah, it's good.
- OK, Brad, well, let's hope it holds.
- Height's going to be key for this to work effectively.
We want it to punch the door about 38 inches off the ground
so it's hitting the same spot every time.
- A little bit higher.
- Flying Monkeys has a lot more height,
but I'm not quite sure about their structure.
- All right, nice and easy.
♪ ♪
- Whoo-hoo, it's hanging, man.
- Whoo. - It's hanging!
- That's a great sign.
- There's a lot of times where we've had
five-hour rounds for people to make just a small sword.
These guys have built a freaking
battering ram in six hours.
- Color me impressed.
- You got a rocket right here.
You've got the nail, and you've got a number two pencil.
- Eli, work on getting a cinder block or two attached.
Now that everything is together,
now that it's swinging, I am sizing up the competition,
and they're all way bigger than we are.
So we want as much weight as we can to knock down the door.
So we're going to attach some cinder
blocks to it to just give it more power
as it's going through.
- Look at these maniacs over here.
- You know, we didn't intend for these guys
to use the cinder blocks as a part of the construction,
but I did technically say you have full access to all
the supplies and all the tools that
are in the open-air workshop.
- I say strap the oxygen tank onto it,
whack the nozzle off of it, and use it as a rocket.
- The battering ram has one purpose,
and that's to destroy things.
And I feel like we should name it J. Neilson
because J.'s really good at destroying things too.
I'd like for this thing to be a one-hit wonder.
- Hey, J., can we name our battering ram after you?
- Sure.
- J. gave us the go ahead.
- [laughs]
- It's hard falling apart inside.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Building team, put down your tools.
This round is over.
- All right.
- Excellent work.
- Oh, yeah!
[cheers and applause]
- Whoo!
- Oh, that was great.
- We started off a little rocky,
but the battering ram turned out great.
But I'm a little nervous because we named our battering
ram the J. Neilson.
J. Neilson hits hard.
We're hoping the battering ram hits just as hard.
♪ ♪
- Sawdust and Sparks, Ther-Mighties, Flying Monkeys,
gentlemen, congratulations to all
three of your teams for an intense
six hours of build time.
Now we've got three seemingly functional battering
rams ready to breach the castle door.
Now, guys, remember, this is all about speed.
Do not stop fighting until I tell you
you have successfully gotten through the castle.
Whichever two teams get through the door
fastest will advance to the third and final round
of this competition.
You guys ready to get to it?
[together] Yeah.
- Sawdust and Sparks, you guys are up first.
Take your position.
- We're feeling really good.
We have a solid structure.
We've got a good design.
We're going right through this door.
But my biggest concern in the testing
is just whether we can do it faster than the other teams.
♪ ♪
This is going to be fun.
♪ ♪
- Oh. [laughs]
Holy smokes.
♪ ♪
[all grunting]
- Whoo-hoo!
- All right, all right.
- You guys have breached the castle.
Very well done. - All right, all right.
- We got the city!
♪ ♪
- Holy cow.
♪ ♪
- The wedge was smart.
The top 2-by got knocked clean off.
- Oh yeah, the 4-by split.
- Snapped it right in half. - Oh, nice.
- Cracked that 4-by right in two.
- Well-- - That's the deal.
- I like it.
- It will breach. - It will breach.
- Yes.
- All right, guys, Sawdust and Sprinkles--
[laughter]
--all right, Sawdust and Sparks, you guys
built a wicked machine here.
It's stout.
You used heavy timbers so the frame was heavy.
That frame didn't move at all while you were
swinging the battering ram.
The wedge you put on the front end of that, by the third hit,
you were breaking through that door.
The fifth hit, you shattered that 4x4 on the back of there
and knocked that gate down.
And it only took you 13 seconds.
That's a good job. - All right.
- Yeah.
- Sawdust and Sparks, very, very well done.
That makes a hard act to follow.
Ther-Mighties, you guys are up next.
How are you feeling?
[laughter]
All right, come on up.
♪ ♪
- A little nervous, just about the spike on the head
of our battering ram.
It's obviously got a different profile than the last guys,
and theirs worked really well.
I'm hoping that we just don't pierce a hole in the door
and get stuck and have to finagle and jiggle it out.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Oh, no.
♪ ♪
You have successfully breached the wall.
Well done, Ther-Mighties.
- Whoo!
♪ ♪
- I mean, I don't think they even broke that board.
They just-- they bounced it out of the brackets.
- It worked out.
- Cool.
- Everything's still in one piece.
- All right, Ther-Mighties, nice design
on your battering ram here.
That first hit, the spike went all the way through.
I thought you were going to have a problem
getting it out of there.
Second hit, you blew a chunk out of the door.
You hit that door so hard, it jumped out of the brackets
and fell over.
But you breached the door.
Great job.
And your time, gentlemen, 13 seconds.
- Yeah. [applause]
- I can't believe we both got 13 seconds.
It's hard to say who has the advantage between us
and Sawdust and Sparks.
But hopefully, the Flying Monkeys don't do as well.
We just have to find out.
- Flying Monkeys, you guys are up next.
How are you feeling? - Great.
- All right, gentlemen, mount up.
- Flying Monkeys are the last team to go.
And having just witnessed the other two teams go
through the door in 13 seconds,
it's making us nervous if I'm telling the truth
So we want to get through under 13 seconds that's our goal.
That's our goal. - Yep.
♪ ♪
- Nice.
- Oh, my.
♪ ♪
- Yeah!
- Whoo!
- Wow. - What?
both: Whoo! - Storm the city.
- Yeah!
- Whoo!
- Good job, guys.
- I hope that castle had breacher's insurance.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- Height is might.
- Wow.
- You know what helped is this--
it's the extra two feet.
- Mm-hmm, yeah.
- [laughs]
I knew this was going to be fun.
- All right, Flying Monkeys, you did a great job.
We were all second-guessing your construction idea
and technique, but by building it as tall as you did,
you had two extra feet of rope hanging there.
And with all three of you pulling that back,
you got so much momentum in that ram,
it just blew that gate through.
You did a great job.
Not only that, it only took six seconds.
- Yes!
- Great! - Whoo-hoo!
- Yeah!
- Building teams, gentlemen, congratulations to all of you.
We had three separate designs of battering
rams and three successful breaches of the castle wall.
Now, Flying Monkeys, you guys got through in only six
seconds, which means you earned yourselves
a spot in the third and final round of this Instruments
of Death competition.
But Sawdust and Sparks, Ther-Mighties, gentlemen,
with both your teams coming in at exactly 13 seconds,
we have a tie, which makes for a difficult decision
for the judges because they've got to go over
every aspect of your builds and decide which one of your teams
have earned your spot into the third and final round.
So if you'd please give us a moment
and step off the testing grounds.
♪ ♪
- I thought 13 seconds was going to be a good number,
but now we're tied.
And we're a little bit nervous on this.
But I think our design is probably
the most robust one up there, so it's up to the judges now.
- Well, that was awesome.
But only one of these teams can make it into the next round,
so you have a decision to make.
Doug, what are you thinking?
- Both of these battering rams have a nice solid frame,
but I love the wedge that you have on Sawdust and Sparks.
The Ther-Mighties have a spike.
It did get stuck.
- Oh, no.
- They got it out, but it still got stuck.
So as a design of a battering ram
that gets your weapon stuck on your opponent,
not a good idea.
- I got to kind of agree with Doug.
Sawdust and Sparks, they've got a really great design.
The wedge, the wider base, the extra wheels,
it moves actually fairly well for its size.
I think it's just a better setup.
- Then we get over here to Ther-Mighties,
it's a little bit on the lighter side, so they thought
they had to weight it out.
So they added more blocks to it,
they added more ballast to it.
Tells me that they were questioning their own design.
- Doug, have you made your decision?
- Yes, I have. - J., how about you?
- Oh, yeah. - Dave?
- Yeah, definitely.
- All right, guys, we'll call them in.
♪ ♪
All right, teams, first of all, you should all
be extremely proud of yourselves for completing
the largest, heaviest weapon we've
ever asked anybody to build in any of our competitions.
You crushed it.
Now, Sawdust and Sparks, Ther-Mighties,
it was so close, but we only have room
in the next round of this competition for one more team.
♪ ♪
And the judges did make a final decision.
And the team leaving this competition is...
[tense music]
Ther-Mighties.
Unfortunately, your batting ram just didn't cut it,
and Doug's going to tell you why.
- Ther-Mighties, the decision to forge your tip into a spike
instead of a wedge-shaped tip caused
it to get stuck and lose time.
And that's the reason why you're not moving forward.
♪ ♪
- Now, guys, it was a hard decision
and it's definitely a tough break.
You should be proud of yourselves,
but unfortunately, your time in this competition has ended.
But, guys, before you head down the hill,
I'd like to ask you to come forward and shake our hands.
- Oh, I'm extremely proud of what we
were able to do in six hours.
That was-- that was impressive.
I was a little bit disappointed
the J. Neilson didn't perform.
- Next time, let's name it after Doug.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- And then there were two.
Flying Monkeys, Sawdust and Sparks, gentlemen,
congratulations on making it through two
grueling rounds of this Instruments
of Death competition.
Now it's down to your two teams to battle it out and find out
which team will be taking home the first ever
Instruments of Death champion title and $20,000.
Gentlemen, how are you feeling? - Good.
- All right, guys, in this final round
you're going to be building a weapon that
was first designed and built by the Romans
thousands of years ago.
And its intent was to launch these.
♪ ♪
- Oh. - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah.
- Gentlemen, these bolts are loaded and launched
by an enormous, torsion-powered, crossbow-like
weapon called the ballista.
- Oh, awesome. - Awesome.
- The use of the ballista on the battlefield
was a total game changer.
Originally made of wood and iron plates,
this weapon was designed to hurl bolts,
spears, even stones with an amount of force
never before seen.
Combine that force with its accuracy,
this weapon was notorious for hitting enemies
over hundreds of feet away.
Its compact size and light weight
made the ballista highly mobile,
making it one of the most popular siege
engines on the battlefield.
Our builders are going to have to come up with a plan
to build a ballista that generates
enough power to pierce targets but, most importantly,
do so accurately.
- I've never built anything remotely close to this before.
The concerns are in the details for me and the team.
It's going to be challenging.
- Now gentleman, all three of your teammates
can work on the ballista at the same time this round.
When it comes to testing, this is all about functionality
and how well your ballistas perform.
You will have 15 hours over the course of three days
to complete your ballistas.
Now, on the beginning of day two,
I'm going to be adding a parameter that
will be a requirement in order to have your ballistas tested.
Is everybody ready? [together] Yeah.
- I'm excited.
We get to build something that will launch
something across the field.
This is going to be fun. - This is gonna be awesome.
Game on.
- Round three, here we come.
- All right.
- All right, guys, we will be giving you
10 minutes of design and preparation time.
And after that, your 15 hours will begin.
Good luck, your design time starts now.
♪ ♪
- Ballista.
- OK.
- I built one of these, a much smaller version,
as a school project with my son.
So I've seen kind of the mechanism a little bit.
I know the concept.
I understand what needs to happen, but on this scale,
it's a lot more complex.
So the basics are we've got the frame, the torsion box here.
And then we need to have a way to put
tension on those... - OK.
- Like, as we're just wrapping them straight.
- OK, what about the back mechanism here?
We need to have something that will pull this back.
Kind of a ratcheting mechanism that can hold that in place.
- We can make, like, a toothed gear,
so it just has a little bit of hook on it.
- They've got three guys building completely separate
components for a puzzle that has
to fit together at the end.
- That's going to be the interesting part.
- Mm-hmm. - And let's get it done.
- OK, let's do it.
- I'm going to sketch out sort of my vision
of how we should proceed.
I'm really excited.
I've never built anything remotely close to this before.
We're going to need a base post.
We're going to have to create some sort of swivel mechanism
here to allow for the ballista to rotate.
- Rotate elevation.
- The most critical part of this weapon
is the torsion box.
That is what will hurl a bolt, because this
is going to be kind of the crux of the machine.
This is what's going to allow it--
- It's the power. - The power option.
- That's the engine, yeah.
We're concerned about the ability to torsion this thing
without it collapsing the box.
And we're gonna have to start working on
a steel frame for this.
I don't want to make it out of wood solely,
because the steel can reinforce it.
- Well, we gave him 10 minutes to design and plan.
How detailed do they get?
- I don't know.
You give me 10 minutes to design a knife,
it'll be a triangle with a stick on the end.
That's about it.
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- All right, gentlemen, preparation time is over.
Day one of the ballista build starts now.
- Whoo!
- All right!
- Hey.
♪ ♪
- Here we go.
This is, hands down, the largest projectile weapon
we've ever asked anybody to make.
- There are a lot of interesting things
with the ballista.
One, the arms are fired by torsion.
So the box that holds your skeins of rope,
that needs to have a ton of support in it.
- Do you want the threaded end or the non-threaded end?
- We don't need threads on it.
On this build, I'm going to be doing most of the wood
because that's my area of expertise.
Rich is going to be doing forging,
and then Brandon is going to be doing both metal and wood.
- Right now, I'm making the frame
for the main torsion box.
Trying to get some extra strength
in that because of all the load that it's under.
So we're gluing it on here and screwing it,
so that gives a lot more rigidity between it.
I'm basically turning two boards into one thicker board.
[drill whirring]
- Gluing it before he screws them in.
Smart man.
My experience with building one of these
is that the power that's in these machines.
If you don't overbuild it, it'll break itself apart.
♪ ♪
- Yep, seems right.
[saw whirring]
- It seems like everyone is working with purpose.
There's not a lot of chatting around or guesswork going on.
Everybody is so focused on what they have to do.
- Well, the Flying Monkeys looks like they're
building crosses for the competitors
right now when they bury them.
- So this is the base to the ballista.
So anyway, we're going to go up like this, center point.
That's where our ballista is going to be mounted.
We're going to support it both ways so it's super strong.
- Going up.
- Flying Monkeys are starting from the ground up.
They're going to build that stand
and then start attaching parts together on top of it.
- I think that's a good plan.
- Yeah, I agree because you building something--
having something and then trying
to build the stand underneath it, it's kind of rough.
- I mean, you don't start a house with the roof
or the walls, you know?
- These braces are going to make
sure this thing goes nowhere.
[drill whirring]
If your ballista falls over when you're firing it,
it's a bad weekend.
♪ ♪
- At this point, the torsion box is pretty much done.
♪ ♪
I'm going to start working on the sled.
- The actual bolt sits on the carriage,
and you hook that carriage to your window, so your crank,
to pull it back, putting the tension
on the bowstring itself.
And then when you fire it, the bolt goes,
the carriage doesn't.
- The Sawdust and Sparks are on the table saw over here.
It looks like they're using it to cut
out a giant dovetail slip.
- Good idea.
- Yeah.
- We're doing a dovetail because that
is kind of the gold standard of two
pieces sliding on each other.
They don't come out.
It's been used for drawer slides for hundreds of years.
It's a tried-and-true joint.
This joint has to be really smooth
because when you're shooting something out,
you don't want any resistance.
Look at this guy, smooth like butter.
Nice.
- This is the beginnings of a torsion box.
- It looks to me like Flying Monkeys
is using a smaller box.
- Is bigger necessarily better when launching these bolts?
- Honestly, if you made it a little bit taller this way,
you've got more rope.
More rope, more tension when you pull it back.
- Hoping for both torsion apparatuses right here
and then our center shot.
[saw whirring]
♪ ♪
- --just so we can fit a lot of rope
in there so we can get maximum torque out of these arms.
- Gentlemen, day one is coming to an end.
You have 30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- So at this point, we don't think a 4-inch hole is going
to provide enough support, so we're going to go ahead and go
down to a 3-inch hole, which will
make the sidewall's thicker.
The reason why we're doing that is so when the torsion crushes
together, when the ropes come together, we want to make sure
there's enough ability to resist the flex.
- Now, is that hole big enough for the ballista?
- I'd want a 4-inch hole.
- So really, the smaller the hole, the less reps you're
going to be able to get, which means the less torsion you're
going to be able to create.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- That's good.
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Builders, pack it up.
This day is over.
Gentlemen, we will see you tomorrow.
- Good work today.
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, welcome to the second day of this final round
of Instruments of Death.
We do have an additional parameter
to add at the beginning of the second day.
By the end of this round, you guys
are going to have to build eight bolts that will
be shot from your ballistas.
- [laughs] Oh, man.
- And on top of that, they each have
to have a hand-forged tip.
- The bolts are time-consuming.
And that's a lot of forging.
Rich is going to be basically doing that all day.
That takes him out of the equation.
So we're down to two people doing the rest of the build.
Why couldn't we just make three bolts?
- Your day two starts now.
- Let's go. - [laughs]
- Cruel. - That's rough.
- Did you see--it's like I kicked their puppy.
- [laughs] - Kind of did.
- Top of day two, we're feeling pretty good.
We've got a good base; we've got our torsion box.
We were right on track.
Grady piled on eight bolts.
That's going to be a lot more work.
The plan to make these bolts is for Brad and Kory
to continue to work on their portions,
and I am going to start cranking out the bolt heads.
[rock music]
I made the determination to make them out of 5160 spring
steel and forge them down into a pyramid
shape with four sides.
And that way they'd have the durability
to hold up for whatever testing they're
going to be put through.
♪ ♪
- I really like the design that Flying Monkeys are
going with for the bolt heads.
- Yeah.
- Power hammer would be nice right about now.
♪ ♪
- We gave each team the ability to have all three members
working at the same time, which turns out to be absolutely
necessary in the second round.
Both teams have lost a member making those bolts.
- Decided to use the coil spring for the spearheads.
So right now I'm just going to cut these into sections,
straighten them out, and then start to shape them.
♪ ♪
- It's always good to see someone
forging on "Forged in Fire."
[laughter]
- We're already 30 minutes into this,
and I've already felt like I've spent a whole day working.
- He's doing a lot of swinging with that hammer.
It gets tiring quick.
[metal clanging]
- Ready when you are.
- That's a hammer.
Go with like an 8-pound sledge.
- There you go.
- That's a really good idea.
- This is called the power hammer.
This is Big Green.
♪ ♪
My role in this whole process is to go up and down.
We'll let this guy actually move
the metal where he wants it.
- OK, nice.
♪ ♪
- Sawdust and Sparks went with the dovetail for their sled
to make sure it didn't have any rise.
Flying Monkeys are just going with a T cut.
♪ ♪
- Easier to build.
I mean, he cut all those pieces in the time it took to cut
a half of that dovetail.
- This is the sled.
This is going to be the bolt track eventually.
The reason we build it like this was to lock everything
in so, basically, the sled, when it's released
and it releases all that tension,
that thing doesn't fly back and hit the guy
in the head or elsewhere.
It would hurt no matter where it hit.
♪ ♪
Yeah, then it's going to slide this time.
I like it.
♪ ♪
- For our tips, we're doing an integrated tip.
So what we're doing is, we're going to sleeve it
into the pipe, and then the pipe
will go on to the wood dowel.
So we have one cohesive piece.
♪ ♪
- So we're doing a good oil quench on these
to make that tip nice and hard, so hopefully,
whatever it impacts will destroy the impact
site and not the tip.
♪ ♪
- All right, we got ourselves some torsion rope.
[bleep].
- The Flying Monkeys are trying to unwind the rope,
and the whole bundle just fell apart.
- This is a spaghetti pile.
- You ever try to uncoil an extension cord?
- Yes, I have. - Christmas lights.
- It gets tied up.
- Doesn't matter how you put the Christmas lights away,
they're tangled when you go get them out the next year.
- We're putting the V12 in this thing.
Got probably about 120 feet of rope.
[laughs]
- So if you think of these machines as an engine,
that torsion bundle is that engine.
So the smoother that runs, the more power you
can get out of that, the better that machine is going to work.
- All right, I'm gonna start coiling these things in here.
♪ ♪
Building our engine, doing it the way the Romans did it.
♪ ♪
- We finally have a bundle in place.
The Flying Monkeys have one going, two team members.
And guys, there's a ton of wraps on this thing.
- Yeah.
- And that's what you want to see.
- I hope we can pull 400 or 500 pounds
out of this torsion bundle.
- Yeah, that would be ideal.
- So Dave, how does this rope system work?
- So if you got a rubber band, there's your rope.
You put a stick in it and wind it and have one end sticking
a little bit further out.
Now you pull this back under pressure
and it's going to snap forward.
- OK.
- And so if you've got a line tied to this,
it's going to pull that line forward.
That's what's making that bow work.
- All right, I'll get the other rope prepped,
and we'll do this again.
♪ ♪
- Here we go. Finally.
- S and S is pulling out rope.
- This is ridiculous.
♪ ♪
It's really, really enjoyable to undo.
♪ ♪
My arm is cramping from pulling the rope.
Lucky me, living the dream.
[groans]
Stupid son of a--
[mumbling]
♪ ♪
- Oh, and man down.
- Nailed it.
You all right? - [bleep].
- Get that on camera? - Oh, yeah.
- No cameras, right?
- That's going to make it.
- At this point, we're going to start putting
the rope into our torsion box.
So we're going to go back and forth,
back and forth around some pipe,
so that we can go ahead and torsion it
and get this thing flying.
I'm hoping for 20 loops.
OK.
- It's good to finally see Sawdust
and Sparks getting the wraps in their bundle done,
but it's a tight fit.
They're not going to be able to get
anywhere near as many wraps in the bundles
as the Flying Monkeys can.
- Oh, that's my finger.
- What's the logic behind putting more wraps of rope?
- Why can't they just get away with one or two wraps?
- It's not going to hold the arms in place.
You're not going to get the tension.
- We only were able to get 9 and 1/2
wraps, so we're going to have to make that work.
- So are they going to rely on more twists
to get that torque?
- They're going to have to.
- Have to. Yeah, I think so.
- Around and around we go.
♪ ♪
- Kory and I are building a trigger plate.
- We're going to need something down here to give
us a pivot, but not that big.
Maybe like a quarter inch.
- So it sits flush, is what you're saying?
- So the connection between the windlass and the sled
is probably the most important connection
you can think about at this point
because it's pulling back all that torsion.
♪ ♪
- OK, ready.
- Yay.
Bye, bolt.
We're going to install this bad boy.
We have this lined up centered on the rail on this bolt,
and this mechanism is centered on there.
If this isn't aligned correctly,
it's not going to probably throw
the bolt out as far as we would like it to be thrown.
This build, everything's got to go right
or it's not going to work right.
- Looking sweet.
- Yeah.
- Just like candy.
- Builders, you guys have one hour left.
- Lift up.
- Oh, here we go.
- Looks like Sparks is lining up
their ballista on the stand.
This is what we're talking about.
These guys have been working on so many different components
of the ballista over the past two days,
and now, as we're coming to the final hour,
they're starting to actually take shape.
- We are clearly progressing quickly
on this, which is great.
We need to put the back winch on,
and we're putting the arms in, hook the bowstring on.
- Sawdust and Sparks is trying to put tension on their
ropes now.
- This is very big.
The more twists they get in the ropes, the more torsion
they get in the bundles.
And if they don't have torsion, the bolts go nowhere.
The amount of torsion they can get in this thing
is going to be the deciding factor whether they
win this thing or lose.
- Oh.
- [bleep].
- Oh, come on.
♪ ♪
- The idea on this was that we would
be able to turn these pipes at the top, which would
tighten the ropes inside.
But they don't want to turn.
♪ ♪
Nope. Not moving.
- They have more torsion, more strength in the bundle
than that rebar can handle.
- I don't know what we're going to do.
This is the only thing that fits inside the pipe.
- So we're well on our way into day two of this ballista
build, and the guys are making a lot of progress
it seems, but Sawdust and Spark has to find a better way
to get more torsion in these bundles or they're done for.
- I'm really frustrated.
I'm at the end of my rope here.
- You want to come here and hold this?
I have an idea.
- OK.
♪ ♪
- I made a big rod.
- Sawdust and Sparks just made a cheater bar.
They're going to try to get even
more torsion in these bundles.
- Oh, that's good.
- 3, 2, 1.
♪ ♪
- OK, good, good.
- OK?
- Holy smokes, look how much faster this is going.
- Yep, big difference.
- There we go.
We're moving.
- Brandon, he totally saved the day on this one.
- OK, 3, 2, 1.
♪ ♪
- We got 20 minutes left, and we're finishing our bolts.
We got the fletchings in.
We're pinning them and gluing them now.
- OK, let's go.
- So Flying monkeys are moments away from mounting
their ballista on its stand.
♪ ♪
- Here we go.
Oop.
- Go back your way about--
- An inch. - --3/4 of an inch.
Not so much.
- Forward, forward.
- I'm so excited for this.
♪ ♪
- Send it.
- You there?
- Yeah.
- We're there. - All right.
- Come on. - They're doing a dry fire.
- Come on.
- Go ahead, Brad.
♪ ♪
- They're not going to shoot it with the bolt,
but they're identifying how far back,
making sure everything's right.
♪ ♪
I can smell their nerves right now.
- Let's go.
- If this breaks, it's lights out.
- All right.
There is about where we're going to need to be.
All right, on the count of three,
everybody grab hold of it.
We'll do it all together back here.
- Whoa, dude.
- Ready? 1, 2, 3.
Whew, boom. - It works.
- I'd call that a successful test.
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.
- It will shoot.
♪ ♪
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
All right, gentlemen, that's the end of day two.
Tomorrow you will have two hours
to finish up your builds.
And we're going to start tomorrow
with an inspection from the judges,
so I hope you're ready.
- Whoo!
♪ ♪
- Gentlemen, you got two hours remaining.
Sawdust and Sparks, step outside the
build site for inspection.
- Hey, guys. How's it going?
- Good. Doing good. - Doing good.
- Everything looks pretty solid.
I mean, right off, I see the biggest problem.
Can't really move this.
That's going to hit wood.
- Also, I see that this isn't really affixed to it,
so that every time you draw on this,
you're going to lose some tension.
So maybe you can find a way to make it
a little more taut in there.
- And how's this system work?
- Yeah, so this one we're going to have--
you'll have a pipe that you put in--
- OK.
- --rotate it, take it out, put it in the other hole.
- Well, I like the fact that that's
not going to be there once you've
got everything at tension.
- Yeah.
- Having this cut loose and having a giant--
- Right.
- --a giant beater right next to you there
trying to rip your arm off.
All right, guys, good luck. - Thank you.
- Have fun with this. - All right, thanks.
After talking to Dave and Doug,
we feel better about this.
We have some things we can tweak and things we can do.
But I think we're not that far off.
We almost need to cut a hole in the front of it.
- OK, we can do that too.
- Flying Monkeys, gentlemen, put down your tools.
It's time for your inspection.
- Man, this thing's almost together.
- I know. - We're getting there.
- It looks good.
- Thank you.
- I mean, this looks solid.
OK, I got a question for you.
- Yes, sir.
- Do you have one of your bolts?
- Yeah, grab one.
- Oh, those look great.
But here's what I'm--
because of this plate being high,
it's going to slap the top part of that.
I've seen these things when they go wrong--
you know, it slaps and the arrow just lifts up.
- Oh, that would be fun.
- And if it hit that, it would rip this thing apart.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So, yeah, I'd take care of that.
But other than that, it looks like you
just got some minor things to dial in,
and you're ready to go.
- All right, gentlemen, good luck.
- Thank you. Appreciate it.
Dave and Doug had some valuable feedback.
Dave points out that there's a gap between where
the bolt rests and the rope.
So we got to get it fixed.
OK, so that can come off.
♪ ♪
- How we looking?
- Good, but there's a lot to do.
I'm confident that both these teams can get it done.
The question is, is, how well they're going to function.
♪ ♪
- That looks good.
- Hey, look at what Sawdust and Spark has done.
- Very, very good.
- They've gone to drilling a hole through their arm
for the rope. - Very good.
- Smart maneuver.
- That's going to create a lot more tension for them.
- Let's do a quick dry fire.
- All right, here we go, Sawdust and Sparks
trying to get some tension.
♪ ♪
- All right, ready, aim, fire.
- All right, we've got a functional ballista.
But I hope they realize that they need
more twist in their bundles.
There's not anywhere near as much torsion as they
could get in this thing.
- No.
Brad from Flying Monkeys is over here on the floor vise
cutting out the notch in the trigger.
So they're going to have that bolt sitting right
up against the bowstring now.
- I'm glad they heard what I said.
That's definitely a game changer.
- We want full contact for propulsion right out the gate.
Super grateful for the input.
- OK, are we clear? - We're clear.
- All right, I'm going straight up.
- Yep.
- One of the things that Dave brought up
was that our arm, as it was rotating,
was hitting the back of the shear wall,
which was decreasing some of the tension on it.
One access hole.
OK, other side.
So in order to do that, we're going
to cut a hole in the front of that
so that the arm can actually rotate out.
♪ ♪
OK, good?
- Gentlemen, you have 30 minutes.
- This is final tension right here.
- [grunts]
- Both teams are upping the ante, adding more
torsion to their ballistas.
How critical is this step right now?
- Oh, I think it's hugely critical.
I mean, you want to have enough power on there to throw
that bolt as far as you want to throw it,
not as far as the machine can throw it.
- This is going to have an immense amount of force.
- I can't wait.
- Let's go.
- Down.
- Come toward me.
Yeah, right there.
- Gentlemen, you got two minutes left.
♪ ♪
- Oh, yeah.
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Teams, put down your tools.
This third and final round is over.
[together] Whoo!
- Good work, guys. - All right.
- Got this done.
- Now that the time is done, I feel good.
I'm glad we finished it in time.
We had a little time to put some stain on the outside,
put some character onto it.
We're ready to test this thing.
- Nice work; nice work.
♪ ♪
- Sawdust and Sparks, Flying Monkeys,
gentlemen, congratulations on a job well done.
This past round we asked you to build the largest projectile
weapon we have ever asked anybody
to make in any of our competition before,
and you six got it done.
Now we've got to find out if these ballistas are
functional to determine which one of your teams
will leave here as the first ever
Instruments of Death champions and take
home a check for $20,000.
We've got two tests set up for you, the first of which
is all about functionality, and it will
be performed by Dave Baker.
And because this ballista is such a unique challenge,
after that first test, you will have
one hour to make adjustments before the second test begins.
All right, Sawdust and Sparks, gentlemen, you're up first.
Please, arm your ballista.
- Got this.
We're a little apprehensive because this
is the first time we've ever fired
this thing with a bolt in it.
I know I'm nervous, and these guys
are nervous too, because we really want to win this.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
- Oh, [bleep].
- All right, gentlemen, first bolt, not so hot.
Why don't you come and reset,
and we'll fire your second bolt?
- It is frustrating to see such
an underwhelming performance.
- This next round, we really hope this is something that we
can launch across the field.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Whoo-hoo.
- All right.
- All right, it got through.
- All right.
We'll take it.
- All right, Sawdust and Sparks,
I love the fact that you've got that trigger system in there.
I love that you've got that ratcheting system.
You made it through two of the layers, the two linen layers.
And I think the biggest issue this machine has is,
there's just not enough tension on those ropes.
If you could get those skeins of rope wound tighter,
I think this whole thing would function actually pretty well.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- All right, Flying Monkeys, you guys are up.
You ready? - Ready.
- All right, lock and load.
- We've got a lot of torsion on our ropes.
My gut feeling is it's going to punch
through all of these barriers.
♪ ♪
- Pull.
- [groans]
Oh, it popped up the arrow.
- So gentlemen, what happened-- your rope sits on top of this
1/4 inch plate, which puts it at like
above the middle of the arrow.
So when it released, I have a feeling this--
it rises a little bit with your trigger
and it slid right over the top of that arrow.
- OK.
- So you got one more bolt. So let's reload this thing.
- Our rope and trigger assembly are
sitting higher than the bolt.
Some fine tuning needs to happen.
♪ ♪
- Same thing.
Three days' worth of work, and it doesn't fire.
- It doesn't fire. - Devastating.
- All right, Flying Monkeys, your machine, I think
it's designed beautifully.
Those skeins of rope are still rock hard,
but there's a little problem with your trigger system
in that the plate that it's mounted on
is raising the rope so it's not dead center on your bolt here.
- All right, gentlemen, now that you've
seen your weapons fired and heard your feedback from Dave,
we're giving you one hour to make any adjustments
before that final team test.
This test is going to determine who's walking away
with that $20,000 and the first ever Instruments
of Death champion title.
So good luck because that time starts now.
♪ ♪
- Let's put this on the ground and see
if we can get some more torque on the top of these ropes.
We need to put a lot more tension on these ropes
and try to tweak it and get it going how we anticipate.
[groans]
- Tremendous amount of force.
So it is a real possibility that these ballistas
could snap in half.
- It's a possibility.
- OK.
- We definitely put on as much tension as we could on that.
- That's good.
- Well, what we saw is the rope going over our bolt.
- As it currently sits, we're not shooting anything.
It's totally ineffective.
We know that we have to raise the shooting platform up.
The fastest way to do that is to raise
the rail up to match the height of the trigger and the rope.
- That's sitting dead end.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to take a marker and make a line.
Because you start cranking it back
and you're looking at the crank and you're
looking at the string.
- Yeah, do not move past here.
- OK, we're good.
- I like that.
Now we're to the edge where if we go any further,
we may be a little concerned about the structure.
- In our normal competitions, I love
watching smiths work out details
so all their fit and finish is really nice.
You know what I like better?
- Finished weapons. - Yes.
Yes.
When they get it done and it works.
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Gentlemen, your build time is finished.
- We tackled the priorities first,
and we got them done and it will fire.
- Well gentlemen, it comes down to one final test.
This is the team battle test.
You will be manning your ballistas going head-to-head
against your competitors.
This is all about how many targets
you can take down with the eight bolts
you have in your arsenal.
Sawdust and Sparks, you guys are up.
Man the machine.
- Let's go, guys.
- We're definitely disappointed with
the performance of that first test.
We were hoping to have much more power behind it
to be able to shoot it a lot harder.
After tensioning this, I think we definitely have
a much better shot at this.
I just hope it fires.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Oh!
- All right, all right!
Whoo!
Reload.
♪ ♪
[all groaning]
♪ ♪
[all groaning]
- Man.
♪ ♪
- All right! Whoo!
All right.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- Whoo!
Yeah!
Nice shot.
♪ ♪
Oh, close.
♪ ♪
Whoo!
Yeah!
- Builders, this is your final shot.
♪ ♪
- All right! Whoo!
The gut shot.
- Good job, guys. Nice, nice.
- All right. - Wow.
It buried the whole bolt.
- The whole...
♪ ♪
Still a solid piece. - Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Sawdust and Sparks, way to make adjustments.
But most of the arrows, they kind of lobbed in.
But trigger system works fantastic.
It's got tons of tension.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
Thank you.
- All right, Flying Monkeys this is your chance, gentlemen.
Knock down all these targets. You guys ready?
- Yeah. - Ready.
- All right, gentlemen, arm your weapon.
Going into the test, if these adjustments that we've made
don't work, we are going home.
Sawdust and Sparks are real competitors,
and they set the bar really high.
- We made the adjustments, but we still haven't seen it fire.
♪ ♪
- Ohh.
♪ ♪
- A little slow, but it's working.
♪ ♪
- Oh, ho-ho! - Yeah!
♪ ♪
- Mm!
- You gotta really aim high.
♪ ♪
- Yeah!
- Nice, got it.
- Get it high.
♪ ♪
- Nice! Direct hit.
- That's beautiful.
♪ ♪
- Yeah!
- Whoo!
♪ ♪
- Ooh.
♪ ♪
- This is your final shot.
- You got this.
♪ ♪
- Ohh!
- Nice work.
- Are you kidding me?
- That's it. That's it.
I'm making one.
- [grunts]
They're flying true.
All right, Flying Monkeys great battlefield fix on that.
By putting those rails on there,
your bowstring was even with the arrow,
which gave it a lot more power just going down the rails.
That fix on the trigger turned that into a weapon.
Nicely done. - Thank you.
- Gentlemen, I think it's safe to say this competition
is neck and neck, but the judges
have a decision to make.
So if you please give us a moment,
we need to talk about the results of the test
and make that decision.
- We feel really good going into the judges' deliberation,
because we hit all the targets.
- You guys have a huge decision to make.
- This is close.
For me, what it comes down to is performance.
And I think the Flying Monkeys just
had an arrow that traveled in a flat trajectory
to the target as opposed to lobbing into the target.
- All right.
- Comparing performance, Sawdust and Sparks
hit their targets five times and missed three times,
whereas the Flying Monkeys missed two times.
- I'm really impressed with both.
That being said, I prefer the construction
of the Flying Monkeys.
Things like framing the box in metal so those pipes will spin
around easier as opposed to the crushed wood that's on Sawdust
and Sparks right now.
As they tension that, that's just getting crushed
and it's going to disappear over time.
- All right, gentlemen.
J., you made your decision?
- Yeah. - Doug?
- Yes, I have. - And Dave?
- Yeah.
- All right, gentlemen, I'll call them back.
♪ ♪
Well, gentlemen, this has been a heck of a ride, guys.
It has been an honor watching your two
teams working through our three intense rounds
of this competition.
And we ended with giving you guys
an unbelievable task of building
an ancient Roman weapon.
But we can only have one team come
out as the first ever Instruments
of Death champions.
And after a long discussion, the judges
did make a final decision.
The winning team of Instruments of Death is...
♪ ♪
Flying Monkeys.
- Oh.
- Gentlemen, congratulations.
- Nice job.
- Good job, guys. - Good job.
- Now, Sawdust and Sparks, unfortunately,
your ballista did not make the cut,
and J.'s going to tell you why.
- Sawdust and Sparks, some of the wooden components
are being crushed and disintegrating,
and your bolts were hitting at a steep arc as opposed
to flying flat and true.
Those are the reasons we're sending you home.
- Good job, brother.
- Overall, this is a great learning experience.
We definitely learned a lot about each other,
about building stuff, and about medieval weapons.
- I absolutely had the time of my life here.
I would do this all over again.
♪ ♪
- Well, Flying Monkeys, guys, congratulations.
You are going home with an extra $20,000
and the title of Instruments of Death champions.
Guys, well done.
both: Whoo!
- Whoo! - Whoo!
♪ ♪
- We made bolts fly, and we won $20,000.
Flying Monkeys flew those bolts.
♪ ♪