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Our first year of Pinewood Derby my son's car came in DEAD LAST by at least two feet! Son didn't give a hoot, but my husband was crushed and vowed to do better. Each year thereafter, they came in first! There is a ton of information on the internet, but here are the highlights that seemed to make a difference.
Weight is extremely important. Don't go over the alloted weight, but get as close as you can. Buy a postal scale at the local office supply store so you can weigh it yourself.
It is all about how well the wheels spin on those little pins that they call axels. This is why some people used to sand down the wheels to smooth them out. That is probably illegal as well as unnecessary. Get some powdered silicone stuff to dust on the axels to help the wheels spin better.
Buy an extra packet of wheels so you can sort through and pick the ones that are the smoothest. Some of them have little snags.
My husband and son did several different designs, put the weight in the front, weight in the back... and finally learned that it really all came down to how smoothly the little wheels spun on the little axels.
My son's favorite design was a "log flume". He just used his pocket knife and carved away at the thing until it looked like a rough sawn log. He stained it with wood stain but didn't paint it. Then he dug out a trench in the top and glued to little Lego men in there. He raised their tiny arms above their heads and they sped down the track!
Don't stress - like everything else kid related these days, some people will go way, way overboard. Just enjoy the experience!
Our first year of Pinewood Derby my son's car came in DEAD LAST by at least two feet! Son didn't give a hoot, but my husband was crushed and vowed to do better. Each year thereafter, they came in first! There is a ton of information on the internet, but here are the highlights that seemed to make a difference.
Weight is extremely important. Don't go over the alloted weight, but get as close as you can. Buy a postal scale at the local office supply store so you can weigh it yourself.
It is all about how well the wheels spin on those little pins that they call axels. This is why some people used to sand down the wheels to smooth them out. That is probably illegal as well as unnecessary. Get some powdered silicone stuff to dust on the axels to help the wheels spin better.
Buy an extra packet of wheels so you can sort through and pick the ones that are the smoothest. Some of them have little snags.
My husband and son did several different designs, put the weight in the front, weight in the back... and finally learned that it really all came down to how smoothly the little wheels spun on the little axels.
My son's favorite design was a "log flume". He just used his pocket knife and carved away at the thing until it looked like a rough sawn log. He stained it with wood stain but didn't paint it. Then he dug out a trench in the top and glued to little Lego men in there. He raised their tiny arms above their heads and they sped down the track!
Don't stress - like everything else kid related these days, some people will go way, way overboard. Just enjoy the experience!
FYI, the weight needed will be more than the weight of the wood. I remember it being 7 or 8 ounces. You'll have to add lead to it. I remember one company that sold a lead weight that fit the bottom of the car (some tracks didn't have the clearance so it went on top). You just had to cut some off to get to the proper weight and glue/nail it on. Also, there will be an "official" scale. Don't be surprised that it will weigh slightly different than your scale. On wheels, we were allowed to remove imperfections caused by the molding process, but not sand them smooth. Sounds like things have changed where that's no longer allowed.
We had a Powder Puff Derby for the Girl Scouts of our County. Dear Lord I have never seen the crazy amount of competition by the PARENTS. The girls would have been happy to run the cars and run on through it. Move on get a patch or certificate or something..... have a snack and forget it. No way. The parents built these darn cars...you can tell. There is no way a 5 yr old can make a car that even slightly resembles a car from that kit without SERIOUS parental assistance.
Have fun. My best advice is to call the cubmaster/packmaster...whoever and get a specific list of the local rules. Maybe ask them for advice. Figure out who is doing weigh in and see if you can get them to weigh the silly thing periodically during development. That saved me the cost of the scale. Make sure you don't get any glue on the wheels. Take a hammer, glue, the graphite, and pennies or weights with you to the weigh in. Weigh it and add your weights as much as you can up to the maximum allowed.
Our weight was 5 oz. I do believe a block of wood with wheels would have come in underweight. You do not have to do anything to the block of wood to enter it except attach the wheels. Of course the boys usually want to do something. My husband and son used a coping saw to carve out the block.
here are some cool templates. Print, cut out, and trace around it directly on the block. Templates
Our pack had a weigh-in the night before, complete with a pit row table that had weights and glue and drills to add or subtract weight. The pack also had a can of the lubricant. Put the weight at the back of the car if you are adding weight.
One tip to consider is to superglue the axles to the car once you have them where you want them, and the wheels are on. They did that for us at the weigh in.
The child is supposed to do most of the work. Despite that you may find some parents that actually take the kit to their machine shop and create a super duper car. Precisely drilled holes for adding weight, etc...Being able to make sure the axles are perfectly square helps the car go faster. OK if the kid is actually there doing it, but some parents take over and use computer aided machining and turn it into "their very own" derby car. Not sure what the boys learn out of it. Oh, well.
Have fun! I found that working on it 15-30 min at a time over a period of time is the best way to avoid frustration.
You were lucky to be able to do that. Our troop insisted on a new car every year and even had photo proof. Silly but those were their rules. New car or disqualified. Serious business this pinewood derby stuff.
Probably could only reuse the car since we lost every year! I bet if we had won they would have pulled out the rule book! LOL!
My son's pack also had a "Dad's Derby" where the Dad's could make themselves the "perfect" car to race with other grown-ups. That way they were less competitive about their son's car. Great solution!
Our pack had an open class for anyone in the family to race a car. Sadly, the dads still made some of the cars for the den races. We thought it would work - I was in the committee meeting where we came up with the idea because of the prior year's cars.
Our pack had an open class for anyone in the family to race a car. Sadly, the dads still made some of the cars for the den races. We thought it would work - I was in the committee meeting where we came up with the idea because of the prior year's cars.
Our pack does the same thing. I have to go to a workshop tomorrow to finish weighting down the car. I really don't know why this is such a big deal. Sigh. Whatever.
Pinwood Derby! That brings back memories. My ex used our first derby as an excuse to buy himself a dremel tool with all sorts of nifty little attachments, LOL. I really like the idea of a seperate race for the dads, they can get very competetive and want to completely take over the project sometimes!
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