Mousetrap Car Made for Beginners (Highly Detailed & Made With Recycled Materials)

Hi everyone! Today, I made a mousetrap car. It is made out of recycled materials, and it is a car that is propelled by a mouse trap and string wrapped around the axle of the car(wheel axle movement). While there are other amazing tutorials on instructables for mousetrap cars, this one is specifically designed for beginners. I have gone through many struggles while building this car, and I have some great tips and suggestions to make your car go faster, and further. Let's get started!

Here's what you'll need!

• Mousetrap
• Wood rectangle or cardboard rectangle 3 inches wide x 6 inches long (I'd recommend wood for a sturdier car, however, I used a sturdy and thick cardboard in my project and it worked as well. You can layer pieces of cardboard to get the same effect.)
• 4 Popsicle sticks
• Wood dowel rods 1/4″ wide (you can also use wooden skewers for this; make sure the skewers/dowel rods are thick and good quality.)
• Zip ties (get your hands on as many as possible)
• Dental floss, Thick embroidery thread, or any type of good quality string
• Hot Glue, or Super glue (Hot glue works the best for this project. I highly recommend using hot glue over super glue, as hot glue is sturdier and easier to work with)
• Thick straws
• Duck tape or Electrical tape
• Wheels - I used recycled wood and cut out wheels. The wheels I used are 2 inches in diameter, so you can use any type of wheel that is 2 inches in diameter. (Avoid using bottle cap wheels)

• A car that was light enough to flip when moving, you need more weight on it (more wood, coins, whatever works).
• Bottle Cap wheels – I’m not sure what the reason was, but I tried it twice and even with electrical tape on them, it just wouldn’t go as it should go.

Take your base piece of your car, and 4 popsicle sticks. Cut two of them in half, and leave two intact. Hot glue the two popsicle sticks cut in half on either sides of the car on the right side of the base, so that they are sticking out from the base. Hot glue the two intact pieces on the left side of the base so they are sticking out from the base. (Look at the image above for reference.)

Cut 3 sections of straw to fit on the body of the car like in the illustration(2 short pieces and 1 long piece). Glue them in place using hot glue. This will be the underside of the car.

Remove the hook of the mousetrap. (The highlighted part in the picture) You do not need to remove anything else.

1. Attach a thick, good quality wooden dowel or skewer to the mousetrap using hot glue. I do not recommend using zip ties because it makes the dowel/skewer slide around, which interferes with the car's movement and overall performance.
2. After that, attach the hook that you removed earlier from the previous step to the wooden dowel/skewer with hot glue. Again, I do not recommend using zip ties for this step either. Make sure that your dowel/skewer is not super long. With the size of base I have provided, it should be around 6.5 ~ 7 inches long.

3. Attach a piece of dental floss or any other sturdy string that you have to the hook, and make sure it is tied securely(you can secure it with hot glue).

This step depends on what types of wheels that you are using.

This step contains instructions on wooden wheels and cardboard wheels which have a diameter of 2 inches.

1. Cut 2 dowels/skewers that are about 4.75 ~ 5 inches long. Slide them through the straws on both ends of the car.

2. Add a zip tie to the beginnings of the dowels.(Make sure the zip ties are super tight, we do not want the wheels sliding off). Cut off any excess material.

3. Add the wheels. Then add another zip tie very close to the wheel, but leaving a small gap between the zip tie and the wheels.(Optional: you can add hot glue to the zip ties to secure them in place. this is something that I did, but it is not necessary.) Again, make sure the zip ties are super tightly secured. Cut off any excess material. The final product should look like the picture above.

Almost done!!

Now we have to glue on the mousetrap to the car. I'd highly recommend using hot glue for this step. Glue the mousetrap towards the back of the car, making sure the mousetrap is positioned like in the picture above. You're finished! Great Job!

1. Take the string, and wind it tightly the first few times around the exposed axel. Then slowly lift the trap up as you're winding the string with the wheels; the string is wound around the exposed axle by turning the wheels in the direction opposite to the direction you want your car to travel(if you want your car to go forward, turn the wheels backwards when you are winding up your car).

2. Release the pressure. Your mousetrap car is travelling! If it is not accelerating, try shortening the long dowel/skewer with the hook and lengthening the string; make sure your car isn't too light, or it will not accelerate very far. Enjoy :)