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Made a See Saw trap today.

 

Using designs posted by others on the forums. many thanks to all, especially John B.

 

 

1 inch mesh to shoot the buggers through

 

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Set and ready for action

 

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Plenty of light at the end of the tunnel

 

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H

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Youngmiller. Visit the site fourteen acre wood. John B's site (A couple of posts above this one in his signature). It will show you how to make one, thats when I stole his secret plans from.

 

One thing I learned that has not been mentioned (I think). When balancing the seesaw, put the lock wire on first and then balance it across a piece of dowel to determine where the balance rod should be stapled. Otherwise the seesaw will be back heavy (although I used galanised fence wire which is heavy), I adjusted mine recently and it works much better.

 

H

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This is a 'basic' one that a friend of mine has just made as another test of the plans. This is good quality marine ply and he's very good at this sort of thing - has a garage full of powertools.

 

(Edited to add that when I say 'basic' I am not intending any sort of slur on H's trap. It's just to distinguish this one from the 'Improved' design with all the sliding doors.)

 

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i've knocked one of these up myself now - all to speck as far as i can see, as above mentioned sensitivity of the seesaw is my only concern -

- mine ' swings ' and locks with a little push - (make your own jokes!) but how sensitive does it need to be? (dont want it so that it's catching mice, but do want some of the bigger boys - rats and squirels!

 

sorry, difficult question to answer i imagine.

 

cheers anyway!

 

(ps, big thank you to johnb for earleir posts regarding seesaws - am going to make a xmas present to myself of your book me thinks!!)

 

sean.

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i've knocked one of these up myself now - all to speck as far as i can see, as above mentioned sensitivity of the seesaw is my only concern -

- mine ' swings ' and locks with a little push - (make your own jokes!) but how sensitive does it need to be? (dont want it so that it's catching mice, but do want some of the bigger boys - rats and squirels!

 

sorry, difficult question to answer i imagine.

 

cheers anyway!

 

(ps, big thank you to johnb for earleir posts regarding seesaws - am going to make a xmas present to myself of your book me thinks!!)

 

sean.tack a bit of lead under the seesaw to get the swing right ;)

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Fish is right - you can fine tune the whole arrangement by adding small weights to the see-saw.

 

The problem with the see-saw is that it acts as a lever, so the further past the pivot the quarry gets, the more downwards push it with generate.

 

So when the little mouse gets right to the very end he could be generating a relatively large amount of downward force. If you set the see-saw with too much counterweight them mousey may not tip the see-saw fully but stands a chance of getting the back end off the ground and buggering up the locking 'U'.

 

More importantly even a rat will generate a relatively small down push as it first goes past the pivot. What you want to avoid at all cost is a counterweight so heavy that it's even a twentieth of the weight of the quarry because then the see-saw moves too slowly.

 

My personal preference is to have the see-saw balance so that the back end is just heavier enough to keep it firmly down in the set position. In fact the see-saw is pivoted dead centre and it's only the weight of the locking 'U' that keeps the down ramp, down. Once the quarry is a fraction more than half way past the pivot it tips and there's no messing about.

 

You sometimes get things you didn't intend, but that's the beauty of a live catch trap. yes.gif

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