Ensure you leave a little bit of room at the end for your fingers to push down to launch. On the opposite end from the rubber band attaching the two sticks, glue on the bottle cap. We prefer not to do this so we can easily adjust our designs to get the most power, however, if you have younger kids the stability and structure will make it easier for them to use. You can secure the V to the fulcrum using another rubber band in a figure 8 pattern. This creates a little ledge for the rubber band to sit on so it doesn’t slide off. If you are having difficult keeping the elastics in place at the end of the V you can put a small notch on either side of the popsicle sticks, or glue on a small button (see craft stick launchers for a similar application). Attach the two sticks with a rubber band on the end so you create a V shape. For extra stability you can slide the popsicle stick between the last stick in the fulcrum, so it is sandwiched in.Īdd a second single stick on top of the fulcrum, also perpendicular to the stack so that it lines up with the bottom stick. Take a single craft stick and place it perpendicular to the stack on the bottom, start by setting the fulcrum about a quarter of the way up the single stick. This helps create some additional stability and strength. To start engineering your catapult, stack eight craft sticks together, one on top of the other and wrap elastics around the ends to hold them together. If you chose to paint first, wait for the paint to dry before assembling. You can do this at the beginning of the project before you start building, or wait and paint it once it is built (this is more difficult). Just like we did with the Craft Stick Launchers, I encourage you to have your kids customize their catapults by painting the craft sticks and even the bottle cap if you don’t already have coloured popsicle sticks.
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