My son turned 8 in January and has since started up the Cub Scouts. It's a bit of a challenge with him being autistic, but he's having fun it's just harder for him to learn all the oaths/handshakes and such. Well the pine wood derby is coming up in a few weeks for his pack so I've been helping him with his car. Anyone else have any pics of cars they've done?
Here's his so far, well for the most part as I put a couple of coats of clear on it tonight so the windows would be shinny like the rest of it.
I do, actually in the adult class at my church, I usualy go for design since speed is difficult and usually costs money, special axles and wheels.
That car looks great! I havent done the thing where you add to the sides and make fenders that cover the wheels like that but I will likley get into that in the future.
The fish doesnt have wheels because I reused the skinny wheels on the wrench. The tank has pieces of drinking straw as the barrel and to hold the top to the bottom, it rotates. The wrench needed the nuts to get up to max weight, the fish is hollowed out underneath and has alot of lead weights too. The fish actually won for speed too!
Beginnings of the tank thought process (think tank?)
I'm at the point of deciding what to make this year.
[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 03-21-2014).]
Those look great! I wish they had an 'adult' class in our pack. About 25% of the cars were obviously done by the fathers with minimal, if any, involvement of the scout. (I say obviously because I KNOW they did, because they SAID they did.)
At least they have their kid(s) in the scouts, I guess.
[This message has been edited by TheDigitalAlchemist (edited 03-21-2014).]
Those look great! I wish they had an 'adult' class in our pack. About 25% of the cars were obviously done by the fathers with minimal, if any, involvement of the scout. (I say obviously because I KNOW they did, because they SAID they did.)
At least they have their kid(s) in the scouts, I guess.
Thanks. I wonder if you suggested it or asked a few of the other guys, if they would be interested in adding an adult class?
I'll have to scrounge up a pic of my winning entry. Did the entire thing myself and I'm pretty danged proud of it, won every class. It had a big flaming chicken decal on the hood plus a bird catcher intake. I think it had drag pipes on it too IIRC.
Note: make sure any weight added is easy to remove some of it after. Scales can be off and only "official weight" matters. I've people scramble trying to get under limit at club's track.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Woa, did that start out as a block of wood, of did you use a kit?
I'll post pics of ours when I get in front of a computer.
It started out as the 1.75" x 1.25" x 7" block of wood that comes in the box. I added the side prices to go over the wheels after seeing they sold them at the scout store. I didn't buy theirs instead I cut the strips out of some high grade pine I had left over from a job. After that it was tracing guide lines on the side to cut out the side profile and then a lot of carving and sanding. I also carved the spoiler perches and then glued a piece of wood across them to become the blade, which I again then sanded and carved into shape. My son said he wanted a Ferrari for his car so I just made my interpretation. The "graphics" are children's temporary tattoos with clear sprayed over them. We are having fun with this and eventually he will be old enough to do more of it on his own just like when I was in the scouts. My dad did most of the work on my first car and as each year went on I did more and more of it until I did it all.
Note: make sure any weight added is easy to remove some of it after. Scales can be off and only "official weight" matters. I've people scramble trying to get under limit at club's track.
That was the one aspect I took control of- there were a stack of weights, and they could be removed as needed until we hit that sweet 5 ounces. Next year, we'll use that tungsten putty.
We came in 2nd in his pack, and 6th at the district race. It was a great experience and I have pics and videos of his build.
I love the creative cars! I learned my first year in cub scouts that anyone can make a wedge and win the race, so i always made fun cars like yours. Ill try and track down pictures but i remember i made a wiener-mobile car, a roll of lifesavers, and a skateboard car. I always lost and never cared
I had to do mine all by myself. It looked like crap and not only did it lose, the axles collapsed and it just sat at the top of the ramp. I left the meeting feeling a bit like Charlie Brown on Halloween. "I got a rock."
I had to do mine all by myself. It looked like crap and not only did it lose, the axles collapsed and it just sat at the top of the ramp. I left the meeting feeling a bit like Charlie Brown on Halloween. "I got a rock."
2.5, That wagon is really neat! I like the wrench and tank to . Is that fish(?) one also or just something else caught by the camera?
Flamberge, Thank you for the compliment .
I just remember building these with my dad growing up and now that I'm older and it's time to teach my son, I find that I can do so much more than I could when I was a kid old enough to do it on my own. So I'm enjoying doing this with my son. I doubt it will be the "fastest" car there but it will look good going down the track! I like seeing the different things people have done because it gives me ideas to suggest to my son for future years. Well that and I like seeing others creativity. I've seen so many of the "fastest" cars that are just thin wedges with wheels. I would rather make something that looks neat and is appreciated for the effort that it took to make it look good over a flat stick with wheels and "go fast" parts. That's not saying I won't polish the axles or the wheel bores and use some graphite, I will, but I'm not going to spend $20 on a set of axles with releif cuts and teflon coating...
Thanks all, and I look foreward to seeing some of the other cars when you all get a chance to post them .
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 03-22-2014).]
Put as much of the weight in front of the front axles as you can, the idea is to make the rear of the car light and have the rear wheels just touching the track. Make sure the nails used for the axles are smooth and the wheels turn without any drag. My last year in the scouts a cousin helped me build a car. It looked similar to yours in shape and I won almost every race. Good Luck!
Put as much of the weight in front of the front axles as you can, the idea is to make the rear of the car light and have the rear wheels just touching the track.
I dont believe this is true. If you have your weight in the rear of the car it will be pushing for slightly longer at the very bottom of the track. Sorry the picture is so small but it makes the point.
I dont believe this is true. If you have your weight in the rear of the car it will be pushing for slightly longer at the very bottom of the track. Sorry the picture is so small but it makes the point.
I know when my father and I built these way back when we used lead sinkers in a hole on the bottom side to add weight. We'd use a wood filler to plug the hole, but that doesn't really leave a way to adjust the weight if the inspection scale reads you a little over. I see some mention of tungsten weights or putty. Tungsten being slightly heavier than lead and readily available sounds like a good way to go. What I'm thinking is to do like what my father and I did and embed the tungsten in the car to a weight of roughly 4.875 ounces. Then, If I can find some "stick on" weights, I could stick them to the underside and add or remove as needed. Has anyone ever seen weights that are thin and have an adhesive backing? Do you think 1/8th of an ounce under 5 ounces is to little or to much wiggle room?
#88 was my first attempt. Since I had no access to a wood shop, I bought a kit. It's a plastic shell that nails onto the wood. It won the "adult heavyweight" class that year. The paint for all the cars is Krylon and masking tape.
#54 was the second year, and I made it with the help of a friend's wood shop for the "coolest design" award. It didn't win, but it placed 7th or 8th over if I remember correctly. Those are aircraft model parts and decals I cannibalized for the car.
#74 was another kit for the second year, built to repeat #88's championship run the previous year. #74 was beaten by a nose in the finals to a car that looked like a torpedo with wheels. #74 is my favorite one, both in paint and style. It's kind of the rougher cheaper cousin to khw's super-car up there.
It was fun digging pulling these cars out. I bet they still run like champs!
I like those Flamberge. That #74 one is neat and the #54 is unique. I've never seen a kit that has a plastic shell to it. I'll have to surf around and see what I can find for ideas.
I like those Flamberge. That #74 one is neat and the #54 is unique. I've never seen a kit that has a plastic shell to it. I'll have to surf around and see what I can find for ideas.
Thanks.
By the way where I come from an Igloo cooler THAT nasty is a badge of honor.
By the way where I come from an Igloo cooler THAT nasty is a badge of honor.
LOL, and the wires visible in the upper right hand corner is my welder. The bucket is 46 weight hydraulic fluid for the excavator and backhoe. There is a jug of Killz-All that's mostly used up and a couple of roofing tile caps in there too. The blue bag is full of roll pins, e-clips, spring clips, cotter keys, fuses, wire, crimp connectors and other various hardware for simple repairs on the tractors and implements. If the picture was bigger you'd see a room full of tools I use regularly. Yeah the Igloo is pretty dirty... But then most days I come home looking worse than it .
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 03-24-2014).]
Built 6 or 7 cars with the kid. We bought an electronic scale from harbor freight for 10 or 15 bucks. Got the cars to 4.95 oz then had a small hole with a cap that we put several small pieces of lead into it to get the car to 5 0z. The type of track will make a difference on the placement of weight . Angle then flat rear works best " S " slope front works better. Biggest advantage is through axle alignment and polish.
We've used the dremel a little bit on another project... I plan on working with him more in the workshop over the summer.
Here's his first pinewood derby car: he built it out of an indy car kit + wooden scorpion from a craft store. The pic on the right was his inspiration.
He came in second in his pack(race),1st in "Most Original Design", and 6th in the district race. Not too shabby!
(He's in the middle in that bottom pic)
[This message has been edited by TheDigitalAlchemist (edited 03-26-2014).]
You're tellin' ME! I'm makin' the most of it, believe me... but I keep reminding myself to make the most of it. He's already more than half my height. We 'High-five' when I drop him off at school. He's growin' up FAST.
Man, I did everything myself with my dad watching over me teaching me. I'd design it on paper without a word from my dad then we'd start. My cars didn't look the coolest, but I knew how to make them fast. Really fast. I always won, and my dad hardly touched the car.
Almost none of these looked like there was much kid input. Kinda disappointing to see if you ask me. Impressive if they had a lot of input. I beat out dads all the time in cub scouts, but I shouldn't have had to race them in the first place.
