I built a crate

[K. L. McReynolds]

Dang, looks like you can do more than beat up steel targets!!!!!

[Cooler]

I take exception to the name "crate".  The proper term is "fitted transit container". 

[Mr Eddie]

Very nice Johnny!  A couple of years ago I helped my friend's son build his car.  We had an incredible time building and tuning it.  And, of course, we painted it fluorescent orange.  Some of my best shop memories are the times I have spent with kids in the shop.

Lonnie

[Wild Turkey]

My youngest son did pinewood when he was a Cub, then when he was a Den Chief (Boy Scout helping with a Den) he made his own car.

Took the block of wood and drilled one of every size hole in my spade bit collection.  Every hole was in a different direction or side.

He called it . . . . . .






"The Holely Roller"

[Gary G™]

Great work Dad. Always good to see fine parenting.

[wood-chips]

That’s a serious transport container you built. It will certainly survive the ravages of young cub scouts.

Last year a friend’s son cub scout pack was doing pinewood derby races and I attended. I said that looks like fun and was told there’s a friends and family race as well. So this year my friend gave me a car kit for me to enter in the friends and family. So I built my car “The Wedge” and it took 1st place out of 16 competitors.

[badwhiskey]

My son and I had a lot of fun making our cars. His pack allowed for parents to enter a separate race. He went for speed and I went for looks. The Batmobile was my best one.

[JohnnyEgo]

We didn't run a formal friends and family for this first solo pinewood derby, because we were not sure how long it would take. Last year when we were sharing a track with a large and well established pack, it took hours (6!) to go through all the brackets. Some of that was that their track was older and the electronics were a little fiddly, whereas ours was brand-new and we set it up the night before. But it went so fast this year with 30 kids and a four race bracket that we will probably have a formal friends and family bracket next year.

We are the new, more 'bohemian' pack on the block. Most of the Type-A parents who crave structure and established routine join the other pack in town, which is not a bad thing for either group. But one of the things I appreciate about our pack is that the cars this year look much more boy-designed and boy-involved than the rolling sculptures of last year's competition. Some of this is simply our group of boys getting older and being able to take more of a hand in things. But it is nice to see the cars 'devolving'.


My son's prior two vehicles show the devolution pretty nicely:

[Cdshakes]

This is a great thing for the pack.  You have a branding iron?  Would be nice to put your name on it, so they remember you and your son years after your son has grown older and out of the pack.  

I never did this when i was young-- do they have official tracks that are bought?  How do they get such precise measurements for time?

Colin

[Bill Wilson]

I never did this when i was young-- do they have official tracks that are bought?  How do they get such precise measurements for time?

Colin

The tracks are electronically timed.  In my grandson's pack, they report the results of each lane, in each heat, to a lap top and project the data on to a screen, so everyone can see what the times were.  It's fairly sophisticated.  I don't know how long they've been doing it this way.