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Old 02-25-2022, 07:05 PM   #1
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Pinewood Derby Cars

Nieces two boys are in the scouts and they had their derby Saturday. Been many years since I attended one. Sure have come a long way. Aluminum track, electronic scoring and impound the cars the night before.
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Old 02-25-2022, 07:22 PM   #2
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Resurrected memory. Had no idea pinewood derby still existed. As child in indian guides a block of wood, plastic wheels, nail axles for those wheels, and the weights. Good for your niece boys.
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Old 02-25-2022, 07:38 PM   #3
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I did that with my dad for a couple of years while I was in the Cub Scouts — it was great fun. Took that block of wood and shaped into a veritable rocket ship on wheels that got me second place! Things like graphite on the nail “axles” and screwing washers into a cutout underneath for better center of gravity really helped. They didn’t impound our cars back in the early 60s — they actually trusted us!
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Old 02-25-2022, 08:02 PM   #4
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Between the drill press and dremel tool, the axles/wheels were works of art.
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Old 02-25-2022, 08:24 PM   #5
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My buddy Eric is heavily involved in scouts with his kids and they just had their derby a few weekends ago. Hours spent on their car on a scale, shaving tap screws for a fraction of an oz ballast. It's really cool to watch them build these cars.
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Old 02-25-2022, 08:44 PM   #6
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Works of art.
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Old 02-25-2022, 08:56 PM   #7
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One final note or those interested.
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Old 02-25-2022, 09:06 PM   #8
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Been doing pinewood derby races for many years. When I came SM of our troop, we started holding our own Pinewood Derby race after our Pack's race.

two years ago, one of the kids the night before as we were setting up the track brought me his car, still sealed in the box, and said he did not have time to do anything with it. I said so, put the wheels on and lets race it as is. He assembled it, did a little Sharpie art work.
He had the fastest car within the Troop that year. It just screamed down the track, never bumping the rails. No added weight, no tuning of the wheels, just assembled and went to victory.
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Old 02-26-2022, 12:39 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RPR View Post
One final note or those interested.
Our races definitely weren’t streamed on Facebook in my days. But I think we traveled to the derby in a covered wagon…
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Old 02-26-2022, 08:30 AM   #10
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I won first place in one of those things many years ago. My dad helped me...

We chucked the nails/axles in a drill and polished them with sand paper. The same was done for the plastic wheels. Those wheels and axles were lubed with sewing machine oil.

We drilled holes in the bottom of the car and melted some lead in there. The lead was some wheel weights I found laying in the street. The lead was sealed over with plastic wood. We went to the post office to do our final weighing. We were right at the weight limit.

We smoked the competition with that car.
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Old 02-26-2022, 09:10 AM   #11
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My boys are crossing over from Cub Scouts to Scouts BSA (what Boy Scouts is now called) one week from today. I started out as their Den Leader and have been Cubmaster for the last 3 years. I'll be an Assistant Scoutmaster in the Troop upon crossover.

We did our final Pinewood Derby in January and one of my boys had the fastest car in the Pack. We didn't do anything special. We just made sure it weighed the maximum allowable (5 oz) and put some graphite on the wheels. No polishing, so special engineering. Not sure why he did so well, as his twins built the same way did not. Just luck of the draw.

It was bittersweet doing our last derby and finishing Cub Scouts. It's been great fun!
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Old 02-26-2022, 10:23 AM   #12
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So high tech now.
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Old 02-26-2022, 06:17 PM   #13
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Sure do remember those. My son now 31 still has his 2- 1st place and 2-2nd place trophy's along with his winning cars sitting on a shelf at his house. Those years in the cub scouts I had just as much fun as he did and we still talk about those days from time to time. Good memories for sure!
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Old 02-26-2022, 07:40 PM   #14
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I always enjoyed the Rain Gutter Regatta more. More kids less adults. But I ran a Sea Base not a dirt camp. Lol
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