My Mousetrap Car
Materials
Upon making the actual mouse trap car, you have to have an approach. You need light materials and you need to know what you are making for the final piece. To start, an overview of what I needed for my car was:
- 2 pieces of wood (18")
- A mouse trap
- 4 regular CD's
- 2 smaller pieces of wood (10")
- 2 sticks or 1 cylindrical lever (=22")
- 2 big straws
- 1 piece of string
- Duct Tape
- 4 metal washers
- 2 cylindrical sticks
- 4 zip ties
Steps to mak
The first step to making the car were the wheels. The wheels were CD's. They were secured by wrapping tape around the straws until the CD would fit and stay on firmly. You did not want the CD's to move around so you would have to cut pieces of tape and put them around the edges and so the wheel would not be able to go over the tape.
Next, upon both wheels being secured, you would need to put a 12" or 1' wooden axle through the straw where the straw can be connected to the rest of the body. Tips when doing this step is, when making the back wheels, you do not need to create a pulley or any type of pulling system for the car to move because the string can just attach to the straw and not anything else.
created a long and thin body shape that gave it a good look and worked well. At the end of each stick,
there were holes drilled in so the axles could go in it and stay there. The axles were not meant to spin
but the straws and CD's were meant to spin on the wooden axle.
To add, the area to place the power source, the mouse trap, is built on 2 pieces of 10" wooden sticks.
These act as a platform for the mouse trap to sit on. They are then put into place by screws to hold it
down. The mousetrap is attached to the platforms by screws and the platform is attached to the rest
of the body.
Also, when making the car, the power source must be effective and useful. When creating it, the lever
is made up of 2 wooden sticks (each being 12" or 1') equaling 22". The lever is not that heavy but is
still very strong. These are then zip tied to the mouse trap arm to create a strong effective lever. At the
end of the lever, there is a piece of tape wrapped around the piece of string to hold it. The other end of
the string is not attached to the wheel but simply wrapped around the straw. The rest of the string is just
wrapped around the straw and ready to be released.
The last part to the car is the extra add on's to make the car go even better. First off, tape or a rubber
band can be added to the back wheels to give the spin a little more push and release. It will give
better traction and can actually help a lot. Next, metal washers can be added to make sure the wheel
(CD's and straw) are not touching the sides slowing it down. The washers hold the wheels in a certain
area not letting anything else slow it down. Third, glue the parts that need to be put together. Gluing
the wooden axle to the sides can keep the structure from moving and shifting sides. Finally, take off
any unnecessary pieces. Before getting to the final piece, most materials did not fit perfectly and not
have any extra space. They usually had some little pieces sticking out. So towards the end when you
happy with what you have you can trim off some remaining pieces to give it that thin look aerodynamic
look and feel.
Tips
When staring up the car, you do not want any overlapping string or else the car will jam and not run as
smoothly. To get rid of any overlaps, you want to elevate the back wheel and spin the wheel as you pull
the string tight until you need to start moving the lever down. You want to keep the string tight and
not loose when you are trying to start it. When it is loose, the string will overlap without a doubt.
Another tip when making the car always make sure all your measurements are correct and add up so
there are not any non-straight lines for the structure. The body must have all 90° angles.
After following these steps the car will run smoothly:
