Introduction: Homemade Highspeed Electric Car

If you've ever wanted to try making your own electric car, this is a very simple way to make a high speed car out of common materials as well as a couple cheap things from an electronic store. No more spending $30-$60 dollars on RC cars, when you can make your own.

Plus, you get the fun out of the experience!

Step 1: Gather Materials

For this project you will need:

1. 9 volt battery + battery plug

2. DC Motor

3. 8 Bottle caps

4. Some cardboard

5. Hot glue gun or super glue

6. Scissors

7. Bamboo sticks and straws

9. Drill

10. Plastic gears

8. Optional: On/off switch

Step 2: Create the Wheels

If you're using a hot glue gun, go ahead and plug it in. Wait a couple minutes for it to heat up, and then you can begin. Take a pair of bottle caps to begin with, and glue on the edges of the hollow side for both caps and then glue it together to form wheels. Proceed to do this for all four pairs of bottle caps (eight bottle caps in total).

Step 3: Drilling

Now you can take your drill and drill small holes into the center of ONLY ONE side of the wheel. Make sure you are drilling into the center of the wheel as best you can. You can mark the center if you need to.

Step 4: Forming the Base

You can set aside your wheels for now, as you will be making the base. Cut out a small rectangular base of cardboard, at most 6 inches, it shouldn't be too large (I trimmed the cardboard in the image). Take your plastic straws and lay out where you want the axles of your wheels to be. When you're satisfied, you can glue them down. Don't worry, you can trim them later.

Step 5: Gear System for Wheels

Attach bamboo sticks to your wheels, so you should now have two bamboo sticks with four wheels on each end. Don't glue them yet, as you need to insert a plastic gear onto one of the sticks. Next, take your motor and attach a gear onto the motor shaft. Then figure out a satisfactory positioning where the motor's gear is mesh with the gear of the wheel. When you're satisfied with everything, go ahead and start gluing. So now, when the motor spins, the gear on the shaft will turn the gear on the bamboo stick which will turn the wheels and thus make the entire car move.

Step 6: Attaching the Battery and Finishing Touches

Take the 9 volt battery plug and plug it into your battery. The slots should have alternating sockets and should be able to connect nicely. Next, find a place to attach your battery so that the wires from the battery plug can reach the motor. When you find a satisfactory position, glue down the battery. Now is where you can use your switch if you want to. Take the red wire and connect it to the motor. The black wire goes to the switch and goes from the switch to the motor. After that, you're already done with the electrical components. Next, you can add some walls to your base to make your car more aesthetically pleasing.

Step 7: Testing

Now that you're finished, you can test your car. This video shows the exact layout of the car that I made. Also, turn on youtube annotations.

Trash to Treasure Contest 2017

Participated in the
Trash to Treasure Contest 2017