Bungee Go Round
Built by Robin Schoolar in September 2026 for the Part 52 Footprint Secretary’s Challenge
In my early teens I remember building something like this, inspired by something I had seen somewhere, and was surprised how well it worked.
In the five decades (and more) since, I don’t recall seeing anything like it, hence my deciding to try a rebuild.
I can’t recall details of my inspiration. If you know of anything like this in a manual, please let me know where.
The tower uses an interesting trick using four angle brackets bolted together in a cross shape. With suitable spacing washers, this gives a hole right in the middle of the tower, which provides excellent bearings for the central vertical axle.
Operating instructions
- Hold one end of the green crossbar steady with one hand.
- With the other hand, twiddle the yellow gear like a knob to wind up the flyers. It doesn’t matter which way you twiddle, but once started, keep twiddling the same way.
- Stop twiddling before the flyers hit their heads on the green crossbar!
- Let go of everything and allow gravity and momentum to take over.
- Watch and wait until the crossbar remains stationary.