Instructions to Build the Cotton-Spool Tank
Introduction
The toy is made of wooden spool and is powered by a rubber band. When you wind it up it will move forward and climb over small obstacles like pencils, erasers and electrical power leads. It goes for quite a long time on a single wind up of the rubber band. Cotton-spool tanks are easy to build if you have the right parts. No special tools are required and it can be done in an hour’s time.
What You Will Need
- An old cotton-thread spool like the. Cut notches in the flanges so old wooden spools that have large flanges are the best but you can get by with a more modern spool that has small flanges. If you have a spool with small flanges you can choose to glue 40 mm diameter discs of 3-ply plywood or stiff cardboard onto the ends of the spool. Use a modern spool try for a wooden one because nails are needed to put into it.
- A rubber band that is a fraction shorter than the cotton spool, or a long rubber band can double over.
- A pencil.
- Two small nails (10 mm long).
- A match
- 12 mm off the end of an ordinary candle stick.
A triangular file, a hammer, some string and a pointed knife (pocket knife is ideal) are needed.
How To Build It
1. With the triangular file cut V-shaped notches all the way round the circumferences of the flanges with the wooden cotton spool. The notches make teeth in the spool that allow it to climb over obstacles. Take the candle stub and rub a layer of wax onto one end of the spool and at the same time, the candle stub should be given a smooth end surface.
2. Hammer two small into the end of the spool opposite where the wax had been waxed. Put the nails on either side of the hole in the middle of the spool. The nail heads must poke up about three or four millimetres and be about 15 mm apart.
3. Gently drill a hole through the centre of the piece of candle using a pointed knife. You can remove the wick in the process. The candle stub has a habit of breaking so drill the hole slowly. One or two rubber bands must pass through this hole.
4. Cut a V-shaped groove across the face of the candle stub that was not smoothed down in step one using a pointed knife. The pencil will lie in this groove and the groove needs to be deep enough only so that the pencil does not spin over the surface of the candle.
5. The tank is now ready to be assembled. Pass a rubber band through the hole in the candle stub and put the pencil, sharpened end first, into the loop of the rubber band. Pull the rubber band back and make sure that the pencil rests in the groove in the candle stub. The candle should be at one end of the pencil.
6. Pass a piece of string through the cotton spool and tie it to the loose end of the rubber band. Pull the rubber band back through the spool so that the candle stub lies against the layer of wax that you put onto the spool. Pass the match through the rubber band on the nail end of the spool, so that the rubber band is held by the pencil on one side of the spool and the match on the other.
The tank is complete! Wind it up by some amount and put it on the floor. The pencil will rotate around till it touches the floor and the tank will roll forward. Watch the tank climb over a small obstacle in its path. It should move quite slowly - more wax is needed on the end of the spool if it unwinds rapidly. Use one rubber band instead of two if the tank does not roll forward well enough. If the rubber bands keep breaking and it still rolls forward too slowly, chamfer the face of the candle stub that rubs against the spool. That is, reduce the area of the candle where it contacts the spool to give it less friction.
