This was my first attempt at making a cotton reel car, and it didn’t work quite as well as I hoped and definitely didn’t look as good as I wanted, but a cotton reel car is a great little engineering project with lots of possibilities.
How to Make a Cotton Reel Car
I tied the elastic band to the bent stick and placed it at one end of the cotton reel. I then threaded the elastic band through the middle of the cotton reel and the washer with the second stick on the end, like this.
To make the cotton reel move, you wind up the stick on the washer end and let it go.
The cotton reel did move, but was a little erratic and tended to go in circles a bit.
Why does the cotton reel move?
Winding up the elastic band causes it to twist. The other end of the elastic band is attached to a matchstick that has been snapped and slotted into the cotton reel’s holes, so it cannot freely rotate. As the band twists, we are stretching it, causing it to store energy. (We know it is doing this because if you let it go, the elastic band untwists). The more we twist the elastic band, the more energy is stored.
When we put the cotton reel down, the elastic band untwists. Because our handle is quite long, it cannot untwist fully, so the other end of the elastic band untwists, and because our broken matchstick is secured to the cotton reel, the reel starts to rotate. This then drives the whole assembly forward.
Try not to overwind as the elastic band may snap.
How can we improve it?
I’m going to try a small piece of candle instead of the washer, which will create more friction between it and the cotton reel.
Place something over the edges of the cotton reel to give it more traction.
Experiment with different size rotating arms. A pencil would be a good thing to try first.
Can you think of anything else?
More science ideas for kids
Try some of my learning about forces.
Last Updated on June 30, 2025 by Emma Vanstone
Love it, Emma! It’ll be fun to see the car body you make for it and how your improvements change how it works. Thanks for hanging out with with me!
Oh wow, my boys are going to love this one. I can see lots of competitive races coming on!
This is an awesome STEM activity! Thanks for sharing at the After School Linky Party. I’m featuring it tomorrow; stop by and check it out (deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com) and keep sharing each Monday. I love your ideas!
My father used to make these for us and he would use a small donut shaped (ie with a hole in the middle) scrap piece of soap instead of the washer. Never failed to work.
Always used a piece of candle as the” slipper ” clutch myself when I was a kid in England fifty years ago. The soap idea is a great way of using up those left over small scraps. Modern evolved technology! Though shame that wooden cotton reels are no more