Build a Homemade Mousetrap

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on November 1, 1982
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Homemade mousetraps: A wooden mousetrap.
Homemade mousetraps: A wooden mousetrap.
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Homemade mousetraps: A soup can mousetrap.
Homemade mousetraps: A soup can mousetrap.
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Diagram: Soup can mousetrap.
Diagram: Soup can mousetrap.

Use these instructions to build two different homemade mousetraps. One design resembles a wooden cell and the other uses a recycled soup-can. A diagram for the soup-can mousetrap can be found in the image gallery (above).

Wooden Cell Mousetrap

This “Old World” model is based on a Danish design and — although it fairly screams “Rube Goldberg” — it’s functional (and even sort of fascinating).

To make it, you’ll need an all-wire coat hanger, a strip of pine measuring 1/4 inches by 2-1/2 inches by 54 inches, another scrap of softwood with 3/4 inch by 1-1/4 inch by 4 inch dimensions, about two dozen 16-gauge, 5/8 inch wire brads and a 3-penny finishing nail. The only tools required are a coping saw, a ruler, a hammer, a nail set, a pair of wire cutters, and a drill with an assortment of bits.

Begin by cutting up your 1/4 inch plank to produce the pieces called for in the illustration. Once you’ve done so, use a No. 48 bit to drill lines of holes — keeping the individual bores about 5/16 inches apart—with each series parallel to and 1/4 inch from one of the short ends of the 1/4 inch by 2-1/2 inch by 9-1/4 inch and the 1/4 inch by 1-1/2 inch by 2-1/8 inch by 5 inch panels — and drill yet another hole through each of the latter parts, at a point 1 inch from the straight edge and 3-1/4 inches from the wide end. (To keep the openings lined up, it’s best to clamp the matching pairs of pieces together, then bore the necessary holes. Note, also, that the lines of openings in the ends of the two wedge-shaped panels don’t extend all the way across the pieces, but terminate 1-1/4 inches down from the peaked corners.)

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