I have two of these and over time (read: kids playing with them) both doors have stopped fully closing. Before I open it up and fuss with it wanted to see if anyone had other tips/tricks to close them?
EDIT: see below. I figured it out and added a pic
I remember seeing a topic where one user slipped the Trap door gears a grove further, which seemed to reduce the issue. What may’ve happened with yours is the doors may’ve slipped a grove the wrong way, which is why they’re not closing fully.
I actually had issues with my doors. So I disassembled the trap and fiddled with it until it was fixed. Taking it apart is pretty easy. There is a good YouTube video on it.
Thanks. Was it that they wouldn’t close all the way?
Yeah. My toddler decided to pull on one of the doors. So it wouldn’t close
Lol. Yeah. I was at a Halloween party and all the kids wanted to play with it. I was happy to oblige but now need to fix it!!
Gotta love kids. Lol. I’m glad the trap doesn’t cost very much so I can replace it if I have to
Ok. I fussed with it before opening it and found a crazy simple trick.
Just secure the white gear with a small screwdriver or pen (with doors in open position) and then pull the door towards ‘closed’ position until it skips a gear tooth or two. Voila. Tightly closing trap.
What is inside your trap??? That looks cool!
Looks like cotton?
I put a long strip of led in there and then jammed a bunch of Halloween spider webbing. It looks pretty cool. Much better than an empty trap with two tiny green leds IMO.
Awesome idea → that spiderwebbing trap-infill, i totally love it - looks just kinda like frozen smoke in the trap.
With the (though pretty useful) fix; i’d suggest not to go overboard with it too much, as this may accellerate the wear of these plastic gears.
Greetings 'n stuff.
Thanks and I agree re: gears…but when the doors are stuck open or won’t fully close, short of testing the whole trap down I’m not sure there’s another option.
Actually, if you just loosen the four screws on the SH trap enough to pull the trap slightly apart you can scoot the gear box to one side and the gears will separate enough that they will disengage a little more, reducing the potential damage done so the door can be adjusted. It’s a bit harder to get it just right this way as it takes a little bit of trial and error, but at least you don’t have to grind any gears to do it. Just one thing to be careful of: The wires tend to want to jump out between the opening of the trap slightly separating, so make sure they are all clear before pushing the trap back together, ESPECIALLY inside the trap under the doors.
Good to know thanks. I just pull the door up which lessens the stress on the gears and that helps it ‘skip’ a tooth or two without too much force.
That is too freaking sweet!!
What I want to know is how to get the doors to open all the way…
So, early on we learned that the doors won’t open all the way with the range of movement that the gears have with the pen mechanism AND also close all the way. It’s one or the other. You can adjust it to open up wide, but then it won’t close completely, or you can adjust it to close tight but then it won’t completely open (this is how it is out of the box, usually).
The only way to get both is to mod it.
ughhh… Thanks for the heads up..