The Catcher with a wood block on a string. Great toy!
Gently throw the block up in the air by swinging the block at the end of the string above eye level, then manoevre the cup so that you can catch the block when it comes down. Vary your technique and you will be an expert in no time!
The materials you need: a string about 50 centimeters long, a piece of a broom stick or just a piece of square wood about one inch or 25 millimeter in diameter or square, a medicine cup and a handle.
You would like also to have some colourful electrical tape for decoration and to attache the string to the handle. The wood block is best made from some denser or harder wood, a broomstick is OK any piece of oak, maple or other hardwood is fine. The handle we cut from a piece of wooden plank about 20 millimeter thick, just the regular dressed wood size, but you don’t have to follow these dimension so precisely. A little adventurous creativity is OK.
Note that we drilled a hole in the wood block. We melted a hole in the bottom of the plastic cup with a small soldering iron or wood burner, but you can also drill a hole in the bottom, just do it gently as the drill might crack the plastic bottom, that is why we prefer to melt a hole in the plastic. You need a little help from an adult for this! You need also a small screw to screw the plastic cup to the handle. And remember you might need your backup cups!
If you wish you can also glue the cup to the handle with a hot glue gun but you still should screw the cup to aid the glue’s holding power. The catcher should be sturdy because you and your friends will use it a lot!
You should reinforce the plastic medicine cup with some tape, besides it makes for a colourful decoration! Note the string inserted into the hole in the block. Secure it with some glue and a small piece of dowel wood.
We use part of a wood skewer that you might have around the kitchen or you just use a decapitated wooden match stick, or a coffee stirr stick… or whatever will clamp the string in the hole, even a piece of rolled up paper will do, as long as you stuff it firmly in place beside the string!
