Elastic power car

In this instructable we create an elastic (rubber band) powered car from scrap material. The car uses a few important physics principles to travel and also teaches skill to use the all important GLUE GUN!  There is a lot of variations of elastic powered "cars" and this variation adds a little elegance to the bunch. This one also does not get your fingers caught in a mouse (or rat) trap. I have built three versions to date, all using different chasis and this one, although not the fastest, is the one that travels the longest distance.

Step 1 Materials and tools

Look at the pic and improvise..  This is a very flexible piece of work that can be modified as you go along. Ignore the soldering iron in the tool picture, it was taken from another instructable.

Main ingredients:
Plastic drinking straws
Bamboo/wooded skewers
Small (25ml) plastic containers
Old/used optical media for wheels
Other plastic caps for wheels (Size does not matter!)
Epoxy glue
Glue-gun glue
Paper clips
Elastic band
Cotton yarn
Paint (optional)

Comments

[s.maria]

Oh. So the axel remains stationary but the wheels move freely for the front wheels and for the back wheels the axel rotates but the wheels stay put?

[s.maria]

This step is a bit confusing. What did you use for the drive wheel? It does not look like CD's. Also, where do we attach the wheel. Is it to the end of the cross we had attached on to the chassis? If you could clarify this, that would be greatly appreciated!

[Dr KAZ]

The pic shows plastic wheels on the drive assembly (the cross). They must be able to rotate freely. I glued a small nut on either side of wheels. The CDs go onto the other axle.