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For the 2014 season my partner and I constructed a PVC car; it's easy to (dis)assemble and essentially guaranteed to go straight. It's substantially heavier than a balsa car but it can still hit a mid-2 second time (or lower, depending on the type of launcher) if built properly. And you won't have to worry about the material deforming, unless you step on it or something

Whoops, I wasn't very clear. I meant build the launcher out of wood 2x4s or pvc, not the ETV.

thx so much gais!!!
also dragon_fruit35
since ur in div b VA
and so am i
what school are u in

fishman100 wrote:For the 2014 season my partner and I constructed a PVC car; it's easy to (dis)assemble and essentially guaranteed to go straight. It's substantially heavier than a balsa car but it can still hit a mid-2 second time (or lower, depending on the type of launcher) if built properly. And you won't have to worry about the material deforming, unless you step on it or something

Hmm, interesting! I built my mousetrap vehicle in the 8th grade out of PVC but it turned out being much too heavy. What kind did you use? and how is it guaranteed to go straight? Just curious:P

InfiniCuber wrote:

fishman100 wrote:For the 2014 season my partner and I constructed a PVC car; it's easy to (dis)assemble and essentially guaranteed to go straight. It's substantially heavier than a balsa car but it can still hit a mid-2 second time (or lower, depending on the type of launcher) if built properly. And you won't have to worry about the material deforming, unless you step on it or something

Hmm, interesting! I built my mousetrap vehicle in the 8th grade out of PVC but it turned out being much too heavy. What kind did you use? and how is it guaranteed to go straight? Just curious:P

PVC parts will connect together at 90 degree angles that are machined to be perfect (i believe this is what he meant)

windu34 wrote:

InfiniCuber wrote:

fishman100 wrote:For the 2014 season my partner and I constructed a PVC car; it's easy to (dis)assemble and essentially guaranteed to go straight. It's substantially heavier than a balsa car but it can still hit a mid-2 second time (or lower, depending on the type of launcher) if built properly. And you won't have to worry about the material deforming, unless you step on it or something

Hmm, interesting! I built my mousetrap vehicle in the 8th grade out of PVC but it turned out being much too heavy. What kind did you use? and how is it guaranteed to go straight? Just curious:P

PVC parts will connect together at 90 degree angles that are machined to be perfect (i believe this is what he meant)

That makes sense. The way I did it as a naive little middle schooler haha was drilling my axle perpendicular to the pvc. I can see that it could in theory be very straight, but attaching wheels could still be a bit weird, unless I'm not thinking of a way to do this perfectly:P

Yep, I think PVC would probably be way too heavy. I'm using square plastic pipe sorta like PVC but a lot lighter.

Oh and shanta that's cool, what region you in?

windu34 wrote:

InfiniCuber wrote:

fishman100 wrote:For the 2014 season my partner and I constructed a PVC car; it's easy to (dis)assemble and essentially guaranteed to go straight. It's substantially heavier than a balsa car but it can still hit a mid-2 second time (or lower, depending on the type of launcher) if built properly. And you won't have to worry about the material deforming, unless you step on it or something

Hmm, interesting! I built my mousetrap vehicle in the 8th grade out of PVC but it turned out being much too heavy. What kind did you use? and how is it guaranteed to go straight? Just curious:P

PVC parts will connect together at 90 degree angles that are machined to be perfect (i believe this is what he meant)

^Yup
It just so happens that standard skateboard bearings fit perfectly into Charlotte PVC (which is also smaller/lighter than traditional PVC), but the car's mass was still around 300-400g.

It takes our vehicle about 4 seconds to get to 9m and 6 seconds to get to 12m. Is this ok? Right now, the vehicle is made of balsa wood. Should we try to improve the vehicle by building it of lightweight metal or some other material? Any suggestions is highly appreciated. Thanks!!!!

seadog wrote:It takes our vehicle about 4 seconds to get to 9m and 6 seconds to get to 12m. Is this ok? Right now, the vehicle is made of balsa wood. Should we try to improve the vehicle by building it of lightweight metal or some other material? Any suggestions is highly appreciated. Thanks!!!!

If you can get your car really accurate, it's not bad. If you really want to be competitive, you want to be under 3 seconds, even ever so slightly above is still competitive, but ideal is less than that. Maybe you want to look into making your launcher more efficient or look at spring launchers?