Pinewood derby cars

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:19 pm

I know it's that time of year. Lets see all of your boys and dads handy work. Here is my sons car we have been working on for the last 3 days.

Sorry about the size they were taken with my camera phone and I didn't think they would be that big.

Parakeet

Troysterr · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:23 pm

4wdParakeet wrote:

Here is my sons car we have been working on for the last 3 days.

So...when you say, "...we have been working on..."

My kid's been in Cub Scouts for almost a year and we still haven't done the Pinewood Derby! I can't wait to build my...er...his car!

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:33 pm

My dad and I did that when I was little. Our church only went to a few meets, but it sure was fun.

We would drill out holes in it and put lead in them to make them go faster. It wasn't against the rules or anything(at the time), but it made a big difference!

I bet your son really enjoys doing that with you. Thats something that will stick in his mind get the rest of his life. Its stuck with me at least. :wink:

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:42 pm

Yea my dad wasn't big into the scouting thing when I was a kid so I tend to go overboard to make up for it. Patrick (my son) has actually had a big part in it. He picked the design for the car, the colors, the paint scheme. I helped with the scheme to make it more talent level friendly. He wanted a dragon on the hood :shock:

and couldn't understand why I couldn't do that.

The stripes seem pretty nice.

Parakeet

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:45 pm

Show us the secret weapons....wheels!

:lol:

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:51 pm

Nothing to see here move along Nothing to see.

Parakeet

Cacher123 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:10 am

Tell me you're not sparay painting it in the shower stall!? :shock:

callaway · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:33 am

I'm gonna hijack like mad with pics here...

I've went through the whole scouting process all the way to Eagle and I've still got 2 pinewood cars, a boat and a rocket (every year it was a different thing... do they still have boats and rockets?) in a case in my room...

display case:

These are cars that I did when I was in cub scouts. They've been sitting around for a few years and are dinged up but they still run like new.

I was going for a shark meets bat-mobile with this guy...

Top:

Profile:

Angle View:

Car 2. Guess the theme here :twisted:

Top:

Profile:

Angle:

With real ziod action and lockwasher rims!

Those were good times...

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:36 am

No I'm not. We live in an apartment so I don't have a garage or basement to spray it in. It's way too cold here to spray and let dry outside (it's about 10 right now). So for the last 3 nights I have been turning all the lights on in the living rm and dinning room and sticking my arm out the sliding glass door I would spray it. Patrick would then shut the door and I would take it to the bathroom turn the vent on and turned on the hair dryer to the cool setting and blow on it for about 5 mins. It's been a little OCC of the Pinewood Derby at my house this week. I hand cut masking tape for all the areas he wanted black. Got yelled at for using the axles to paint it by him. I love spending time like this with him.

Parakeet

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:37 am

Those are good. He wanted to do something like the first one but all I had was a saw-zal with a 12" blade. Can't do fine cuts without taking out fingers.

Parakeet

callaway · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:40 am

you just gotta make a sanding dowel and go to that soft balsa to get the right curves. much more labor intensive but you can make some pretty cool things you wouldnt normally see...

speaking of which i would like to see someone take a sawsaw to that little block of wood and carve it...

4wdParakeet · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:41 am

I didn't get video of it but it wasn't a OSHA approved opperation.

Parakeet

moose · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:36 am

make sure to mount the weight high and to the rear (got to the max - 5oz.), put the nails/axles in a drill and run them for a few minutes with steel wool to smooth them, and sand the wheels. also, get some graphite...

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:58 am

moose wrote:

make sure to mount the weight high and to the rear (got to the max - 5oz.), put the nails/axles in a drill and run them for a few minutes with steel wool to smooth them, and sand the wheels. also, get some graphite...

yup, use the graphite for sure. I had forgotten all about that.

Jeger · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:33 am

Jeepjeepster wrote:

moose wrote:

make sure to mount the weight high and to the rear (got to the max - 5oz.), put the nails/axles in a drill and run them for a few minutes with steel wool to smooth them, and sand the wheels. also, get some graphite...

yup, use the graphite for sure. I had forgotten all about that.

The graphite trick is what I believe got me the win with the C02 powered racers we made in woodshop. We were only allowed to use what was available in the shop, everyone else went to the machine oil or no lube, I just took my carpenters pencil and gave everything a good coating. Mine was called the "Crazy Goose", we had to carve them by hand.....it was a little crooked :lol:

Hypurr · **Posted:** Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:45 pm

I too went through scouts all the way to Eagle. And yes they still have the boats: rain gutter regatta, rockets: Space race and of course the Pinewood Derby.

Sadly, my sons aren't old enough yet but I have one better.... I actually work for the Boy Scouts of America. So I get to see council and regional pinewood runoffs and such its the one oart of the job thats fun. Since the job isn't about camping the events are what makes it fun.

TheJawsOfDeath · **Joined:** Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:56 am **Posts:** 305

One of my two entries in the pinewood derby when I was a scout was all-dominating in my troop. I drilled it out to fit these cylindrical lead weights in, then used wood putty to fill up the holes, sanded it, ect. You couldnt tell they were in there, other than the heft of the car. It was a hot rod looking affair, primer black with flames :twisted:

One thing you might try for a slight edge in speed is to set the nails in with a little bit of negative camber (so that the tops of the wheels are angled inward). In theory, there would be less rolling resistance, since the car would be riding on the inside edge of the wheels then. That could make it a bit faster...Just make sure they arent touching the car obviously. Also if you maybe drilled holes through the sidewall of the wheel to lighten it, that would help. Anything that would cut rolling resistance like sanding the axles and using graphite will help acceleration and terminal velocity.

I remember doing that stuff with my dad, tons of fun. Good luck at the races!

USAFCOP · **Posted:** Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:58 am

moose wrote:

make sure to mount the weight high and to the rear (got to the max - 5oz.), put the nails/axles in a drill and run them for a few minutes with steel wool to smooth them, and sand the wheels. also, get some graphite...

Definetley, Tommy did a truck last year, and got 4th overall as a TIGER! It was all a matter of the heets, because I think his time was actually faster than the second place car, but he raced the first, and the other he raced against lost to the first as well....

This year he wants to do another truck with the weight in the bed again... We haven't gotten our kits yet this year, because the snow keeps cancelling the pack meetings, so hopefully if the snow holds off, we will get them tonight.

Troysterr · **Posted:** Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:34 pm

My 9 year-old won 1st place in his division last night. We bought his car as a pre-cut kit at a craft store--just because it was a lot cheaper as a kit (it included the body, wheels, weights, and stickers).

In hindsight, I wish we'd just gotten the block of wood--we were the only car there built from a kit.

Anyway, he finished last in the first heat, so I got pretty nervous. I think it was a fluke though, because he won every heat after that, including several after the official 4 heats.

I drilled some holes in the bottom behind the rear wheels, melted some lead weights in a tuna can, and poured the molten lead into the holes. It doesn't look too pretty, but it got the job done.

We put as much weight as possible behind the rear wheels, but it wasn't enough to bring the car up to 5 oz, so we installed a lead "tranny skid".

After the official heats, the guy running the race invited the kids to run their cars backwards. Our car did horribly backwards--a testament, I think, to the importance of keeping the weight as far as possible to the rear of the car.

Dje Ryu · **Posted:** Sat Jun 02, 2007 2:05 pm

graphite would probably be best but if for some reason you can't find any, slide oil (for trombones) from a music store should do the trick pretty well or way oil from a machine shop.

Pinewood derby cars

Who is online