ToonyMan wrote:$142 Launcher!
I can't see getting up without tension.
Okay some clues for you to make a non tension launcher. Without telling you exactly how.
Squeeze the dillo. Force the ball into a space it can't fit into and it will shoot out
Use weight to make it squeeze harder for extra speed.
Another clue. What would happen if you dropped a book on the side of a ball? Or two books, or three books? That's another way of doing it.
A great deal of the skill of this game is finding ways to covert potential energy into kenetic energy. So the further something falls, and the heavier it is, the more movement (kenetic energy) it will transfer when it hits something. Also making that tranferance of energy as smooth as possible is also the key to efficiency and thus lower costs. Bouncing and bumping takes away energy.
I hope this helps you to get a launcher under $100