Pinewood Derby

[JohnnyEgo]

It's the season again. My son is now a Webelo, one of the older ranks of the Cub Scouts. This was our fourth derby, and each year as he gets older, he gets to do a little bit more of the work. This year, he drafted the design and I cut it out on the bandsaw. Then he shaped it on the sander (only shot it across the garage twice!) and hit it with three coats of black spray paint. Was going for something between a Bat Mobile and a rocket car, and I think he executed fairly well on his vision:







Meanwhile, we have an adult league in which to channel all of our helicopter-parent tendencies. I held a build day in my garage, and we had a pretty fun group of Dads who were quantifiably more interested in building their cars than the kids were building their own. At one point, I think I had six kids in the house playing video games with my own son for nearly two hours after their cars were done, while parents worked on their own. Several parents had their first exposure to woodworking equipment, and I probably sold at least four bandsaws and Rigid spindle sanders over the course of the time.

Anyways, I made an adult car which I tried to make look like a GTO, but the front clip turned out more Cadillac than I had intended. This was actually a super-easy car to knock out, and the process of making fenders for it yielded four fenders per block, so I made a few extras for track-testers (When we assemble the track, we have to adjust all the lanes and work the timer. To avoid risking any damage to the kid's cars before the race, or any sort of competitive advantage, we use cars that don't compete in the actual derby.)









Also, for grins, I built a Jeep. I planned it out and thought it would be easy, but it was incredibly tedious to build. 12 separate parts to carve out and glue on. This one ended up in the kitchen oven the night before to get the paint to dry.















Anyways, my son's car acquitted itself decently, at 198 scale MPH, but was nowhere close to the winner at 211 MPH. I didn't graphite his axles, and probably should have. But he handled the defeat graciously, and was proud of his car.

One year left to go, which is a shame, because I finally feel like we are getting pretty good at these things. But I have no intention of having any more children, so I suppose I will just have to let it go until I am a grandfather somewhere down the road.

Anyways, this is the kind of wood working I am starting the year out with, and I appreciate the opportunity to share.

[5thumbs]

Congrats to you and your son! Years from now, the time you spent with  him will be much more valued than any trophy.

[DaveR1]

Excellent! Nice work on the cars and congratulations to your son.

When my son was in Webelos he wanted to do a car that looked something like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was fun helping him work out how to cut the blank so we could use only the wood from it and not add anymore. A little like a bandsaw box. He seems to be a natural at the bandsaw, too.





To make sure we could do it, I made a dummy blank that we cut up so he could practice and get the cuts in the right order. He did all the cutting on both of them after some practice on scraps.

[Bill Wilson]

Nice.  Had some fun times with my GS during his three Derby years.  He took home one 3rd place trophy and two Best of Show's.  Grandaughters troop did a derby last Spring.  That was a first.  It was fun, but a totally different vibe.  She wasn't interested in the ww'ing, but was all about the design and the painting.

[MsNomer]

Johnny, would you be willing to share your plans for that Jeep? The grandson might like a model of the one in Grampa's yard.

[Bill Holt]

Lot of fun.  Great shop time with son and grandson.  Our son is somewhat of a perfectionist so I got watch.

[JohnnyEgo]

Johnny, would you be willing to share your plans for that Jeep? The grandson might like a model of the one in Grampa's yard.

Would be delighted to share, Carolyn. Though it'll have to wait until this weekend when I am back in town. But will scan them and kick you a link in the PMs.

[Bob10]

Would be delighted to share, Carolyn.  Though it'll have to wait until this weekend when I am back in town.  But will scan them and kick you a link in the PMs.

Did you lead it up to the max weight?  I remember drilling the hole in the bottom and filling with lead on the scale to make the weight

[JohnnyEgo]

We weighted my son's car to 4.98 oz out of 5. My car was overweight as it was, so I used a Foerster to carve out the inside.

I felt like I saw every possible trick on display. Heavily canted wheels, rail riders, skinny bodies, etc. But the kid who won had a simple body that looked vaguely like a sports car and appeared to be one continuous bandsaw cut. Wasn't the heaviest car there, and he had clearly painted it himself. Nothing weird with the wheels. But it ran smooth, straight, and very fast. While I wanted my own kid to win, of course, I was very pleased that the kid who did win had a car that looked like a 10 year old designed and built it.

[DaveR1]

That's pretty cool.