Couple of days off to build a race car

stingray

stingray

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Daniel Michaels
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Pine wood derby is coming up I had to take a couple days off to build a race car with my grandson. We tuned the wheels and axles, cut custom flames, designed axle holders to keep it fast more than once. Or I could have bought one for $189.00
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I am in the wrong business. We are painting gran-daughters now. No flames, just purple harts.

Dan
 

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stingray said:
Pine wood derby is coming up I had to take a couple days off to build a race car with my grandson. We tuned the wheels and axles, cut custom flames, designed axle holders to keep it fast more than once. Or I could have bought one for $189.00
11.gif
I am in the wrong business. We are painting gran-daughters now. No flames, just purple harts.

Dan
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That's great - I sure had fun doing that with the kids, even though we never did win any races (we did win a design award one year, though...)

Hope you end up in the Winners Circle!


Trapper John
 
I made mine the night before the race in an absolute rush. It was very ugly. I had no help and didn't really have a clue what I was doing.

The next day I failed to pass the weigh-in--I think I was too heavy..so I just chopped part of it off--and then won.
 
jesse said:
I made mine the night before the race in an absolute rush. It was very ugly. I had no help and didn't really have a clue what I was doing.

The next day I failed to pass the weigh-in--I think I was too heavy..so I just chopped part of it off--and then won.
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That's what happened to us last year. I got one day's notice that it was "Tomorrow". One chop with the saw so it did not look like a block of wood drilled a hole for a bolt and stopped off at the Post office to weight it on the way in.

Jonathan did a lot of the work himself. I showed him how to move the nodes around on the computer to make the flames. He also did a lot of sanding. Still too young to work the saw or drill.

Dan
 
I was too young, so I barely remember it, but I know I did not ever win anything with my pinewood car in Cub Scouts.

IIRC, it was too light, so we hotglued weights onto it to make it heavier.
 
SkyHog said:
I was too young, so I barely remember it, but I know I did not ever win anything with my pinewood car in Cub Scouts.

IIRC, it was too light, so we hotglued weights onto it to make it heavier.
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I thought mine looked cool, but it was certainly not aerodynamic. I also put weights in it, by drilling holes in the front of the car and adding weight, and then plugged the holes with dowels which became the "headlights." :)

Oh, and graphited the hell out of the wheels too. :yes:
 
I helped my oldest son with his (for the AWANA equivalent of pinewood). He designed the car and cut it out. I helped with technical advice and some fine work. We lubed his axles with butter (no high-tech graphite for us) and he took second (out of a couple of hundred entrants) in the regionals.

I picked up a few tips from the internet. The most important tip was to put the weights in the back of the car. They have more potential energy (meaning they are higher off the ground) at the start that way. (Think of it this way: when the front axle hits the flat, the weights are still pushing down the ramp.) Second, make sure your car is at the maximum weight (gives it the MOST potential energy). Make sure the car doesn't pull (wheels all go straight). THis keeps it from rubbing along the track. And make sure only one of the front wheels touches the ground. This reduces rolling resistance. The car won't fall over (remember we put as much weight as possible oin the back?).

The next year he used the same design (new car) and refused to do the extra work to get the car all the way up to weight. He lost in the first round.

It was a great experience for him that first year, though. And probably more valuable experience the second.
John
 
I remember getting my dad's advice in setting up my Pinewood Derby...

We ended up using solder as the weight, drilling holes and dripping/filling it in. That way we could be extremely accurate with the weight. I polished the heck out of the nails which were supplied as axles, and made sure there were no burrs on the wheels.

I ended up winning that year! (Still have the medal somewhere..)

Anybody remember the Rocket Derby? A rubber band powered, propeller driven balsa wood w/fins, which hung from, and "flew" down a wire for about 50'. (Won that one too!)
 
At one time, I worked with a guy that had a dozen or so kids and was the keeper of the pinewood derby track - he did a lot of research and had about four or 5 pages of "tips" on making cars faster. Some touched on above.

Other things:

IIRC the biggest thing was picking the right set of wheels. Some are faster than others. By several and test.

Make the rear wheels closer together than the front so it "steers" from the rear.

Don't remember much else...
 
One member of my son's Pack (a long time ago, the friend is now a Naval Aviator) made the simplest car. Left enough wood to hold it together and brought it back up to weight with lead. Needless to say, it was dubbed "The Lead Sled". It won. Aerodynamics were simple - as little frontal area as possible.
 
When my son was in Cub scouts one year we both did one. We spent all the time on his. We were out of time on mine. So we just attached the dowels and the wheels. It was painted black. Big black chunk of wood. It actually did pretty good. It was just about middle of the pack. His won so it was worth putting in the time for his.
 
We took second place very close to first but the winner was mister Cubscout leader you know hat, shirt, pants, been doing it for years.

It was a lot of fun. Grandaughter won second also with her car. Jonathan won Best craftmanship also.

Dan
 

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gprellwitz said:
Jonathan looks a lot happier than the 1st place winner! :)
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The crowd thought so too when he was jumping up and down yelling "I got second place".:happydance: He is a great kid and I wish his father was still here to enjoy it. It has been 7 years since he died on March 10 yet it still seems like yesterday for me.

Dan
 
stingray said:
He is a great kid and I wish his father was still here to enjoy it. It has been 7 years since he died on March 10 yet it still seems like yesterday for me.

Dan
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I'm sorry to hear that. It's good that he has a grandfather that is able to be involved...
 
My pinewood experience as a kid sucked. No help, no idea what to do. the car didn't even finish. When my son joined scouts, my loving bride ordered every video she could find on the subject, and made the boy and I watch them. Between the son and daughter, we built 6 cars, and they have a stack of trophies. I have to admit, it was a ball helping them. Last year we had a "builders clinic" in my garage. We offered help to his troop and parents that had no tools or abilities. It was cool to hear from several of the kids that had the best cars, and races they'd ever had.
 
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