The "Milk" Well

The "Milk" Well is a pulley. It's not for real use because it's made of cardboard but it can be used for fun. It's really easy to make with only a few materials. I used whatever I had around my house and it worked out well. You can use many different things but I decided to stick to simple materials.

When I was thinking of what to do for my simple machine, I wanted something easy but still creative. So the Milk Well is very much that.

My materials are below:

-A milk carton

-1 plastic straw

-A toothpaste cap (or something you can use as the "bucket")

-A cardboard cutter (or scissors, etc.)

-String (I used cotton thread but yarn, fabric string, etc. could work)

-A pen

-A hole puncher or something to punch holes in cardboard

Cut the milk carton so that an inch from the top, about 2 inches of space cut out, and whatever is left for the bottom half. On the sides leave a skinny piece so that later you can use it. Like the picture above.

Take your hole puncher (or what you have) and create a hole in each side of the leftover cardboard after cutting. Take your plastic straw and slide it through the milk carton. The picture above is a representation of it.

Take your toothpaste cap and either do: Create two holes for the string to go through or wrap and knot the string around the cap. Now wrap the rest of your string around the straw enough so that you can knot it around the folded end of the straw. Now make sure it works and twist the end of the straw and the string should go down with the cap.

Test it out! Try to turn the "lever" or end of the straw to lower the cap and bring it back up. The pulley will stop once the string is fully unraveled. Then you can pull it back up and twist the excess string back up. And you have it! Your easy "Milk" Well!