Mousetrap Car

by HannahManier

7.7K185

Intro: Mousetrap Car

Mousetrap motored "cars" are not always easy to make. These instructions will contradict the previous statement.

STEP 1: What You Will Need

You will need: for our body we used K'nex These materials can easily be substituted.
-1 mousetrap
-1 long, grey rod for the back axel
-a shorter, red rod for the front axel
-4 rubber tires
-4 orange, rectangular pieces,
-and 6 small, grey pieces, all from the K'nex set
-10" string
-hot glue

STEP 2:

Attach the 4 rectangular, orange pieces to the 2 widths of the mousetrap with force. They do not need to be fastened with anything further.

STEP 3:

Slide the 2 rods in the front and back pieces

STEP 4:

Attach 2 grey, smaller prices to either side of mousetrap on axels to prevent movement. Slide on and hot glue back tires to axel. Repeat for front axel.

STEP 5:

Tie one end of string to the mousetrap trigger. Next, wrap the remaining amount of string around the back axel, making sure it's secure.

STEP 6:

After you have set trap and wound string around the back axel, let go and let fly!

3 Comments

liam.plybon.3 9 years ago

Nice model! If you want it to go really fast, find wheels with lower moments of inertia (knex wheels are pretty high) and try to use larger back wheels. Also, you can cut mass off the body to increase velocity.