Pinewood Derby


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I am going absolutely NUTS here trying to work with my grandson to build his Pinewood Derby car for scouts. I bought a scroll saw and managed to get a pretty nice shape cut and the first time I drilled all the holes for the axles I got them 100% even and rolling perfectly, BUT the car sat 3/32" too low because I miscalculated the wheel diameter with trying to get a 3/8" clearance. Well this has now turned into a nearly 2 full day endeavor. I cannot seem to get one wheel (always right front) to go to proper level so all 4 are on the ground. AAAARRRGH I am pulling my hair out and I am sick of the whole damn thing. Every time I try drilling the hole on one side with the drill press there is a vein in the wood that causes the bit to walk and bend slightly and I have tried in 4 places on that stupid thing now. As Mr. Codgers would say...............Can you say F R U S T R AT I O N boys and girls? Sure I knew you could
 
I remember my dad making mine as a kid and that's about it. It looked cool but I lost miserably. I've seen some youtube videos about how to win. I think one of the tricks is to only have 3 wheels touching to reduce friction.
 
Doing final assembly on the cars for both of my boys tonight. Race is tomorrow (Tuesday). This is the last year for my oldest and he did most of it on his own, except for putting the axles and wheels on. He helped though. Every year, our Scoutmaster hosts a car design/cutting event and this year, he had a jig for drilling holes for the axles. Worked like a charm. They went in with some strong thumb pressure, and then we put some glue/epoxy in the notch to hold the axle in place. We'll see how they do tomorrow. Both kids are kind of 'over it' from a competition perspective, but enjoy designing/building the cars.

We have new rules this year that state all four wheels must be in contact with the track, so the three wheel trick is no longer allowed. We did that a couple years ago and it worked pretty well.
 
We used to do a bit of that.

there's tools you use for drilling the axle holes that put them in the right spot and ensure their square.

We used to go to district every year and place high. My son's cars were beautiful as well. I had to take pictures and put together a booklet of every step so people would believe he made them. It just took starting well in advance and doing five to ten minutes a night. and yeah I had to make him do it but he did it. Printing custom decals is easy on the computer. Right down to a license plate that says 2fast4U, and his name on the door.

At some point it becomes a really competition for the dads. Keeping that from happening is the hard part. The highest placing people have their own tracks at home so they can tune their cars to ride the rail.

When lathed wheels are illegal to lighten, a socket with sandpaper wrapped around it used to thin the wheel out from the inside is still legal. Lots of slow turning by hand.

Micrometer, lathe, purchasing dozens of wheels to sort through to find the 4 best ones for starting, bore gauges, reamers, We had the first turn brass polished axle holding tools with perfect fit to the axle bore, to .001", before cutting wheel tread square. Our wheels had runout about .0005".

And yes the scout can do it all a lathe is is turning a handle to move a cutter.
 
Last edited:
Its been 7 years since i helped with a car, my trick was carving some recesses in the bottom and epoxying as many 2 inch washers to get it near the max allowable weight. Good luck
 
Well the way I was able to cut the block I was able to form 2 cars out of it but ruined them both trying to get the axles to be level and have all 4 on the ground. Daughter is going to hit scout unit today and get another kit. Honestly I cannot even describe how frustrated this is for me. What kills me is they expect little kids to do this?! I'm a pretty skilled adult and have a good understanding of tools and can't do it. I am thinking if I could make a jig I think it would be "da bomb"
 
I won the pine wood derby in 1972, lost in 71, what we did for the weight is copper side pipes that were crimped on the front and open in the back so we could add lead shot to get the right weight, then we blocked it with a wad of paper I think, the year before the weight was in the back in the from of tail pipes and they were hard to remove to get the weight right and to far back.
 
My father won the Pinewood Derby with my car. It was a sweet ride. He built it while I watched. The car we beat in the finals was obviously built by the boy who was running it. He had it in his home office until a few years ago when they downsized.
 
I remember the first time we did it (35yrs ago) My son did a Pay Day car, just took the wrapper off the candy bar and glued it on.
We had no idea on weights or wheels, just made it so it rolled and looked good. When we got to the race the Scoutmaster weighed it and said it's pretty light, I taped a few quarters on the back.
Car came to the bottom of the ramp and stopped, much to our disappointment.
I said never again, and looked at an add for a pamphlet from the back of Boys life magazine on PW derby cars.
The guy had the same tips that everyone pointed out up thread and he also sold weights, wheels and axles.
I wanna say we didn't drill holes for axles back then, the axles were more like trim nails that were tapped in with a hammer.
After that first fail we did alright winning first or second place for my other three Son's.

Tim
 
I did pinewood derby cars when I was a kid/in the scouts. My parents didn't really help too much & left it up to me to design & whittle it. Something I really enjoyed.
I also seem to remember the wheels being held on with small nails.
 
Yep little nails. Well, anyway daughter took the car to the council yesterday at my request because all 4 wheels did not touch completely. Something that was making me pull what little hair I have left out. The rules are very specific about it and indicate if they all don't touch it's disqualified. Well the staffer said the car was ok because a business card could not clear the wheel. So it was close enough. But she bought another kit and another axle and wheel kit for me. I am able to get 2 car bodies from one block so I may build 2 more cars and let them figure out which one tests out the best on Friday. And run that one.
 
LMichaels said:
Well the way I was able to cut the block I was able to form 2 cars out of it but ruined them both trying to get the axles to be level and have all 4 on the ground. Daughter is going to hit scout unit today and get another kit. Honestly I cannot even describe how frustrated this is for me. What kills me is they expect little kids to do this?! I'm a pretty skilled adult and have a good understanding of tools and can't do it. I am thinking if I could make a jig I think it would be "da bomb"
Click to expand...

http://www.hobbylinc.com/pine-car-pine-car-axle-slot-jig-pinewood-derby-tool-and-accessory-p4610?source=froogle&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvqDiBRDAARIsADWh5TcD0I_-n7LMVvBPQXRn34YAZpeeVnFU7LXeglaN9XHY1eGIExuSDHoaAqk8EALw_wcB

You seem to be in the dark...


https://www.derbytalk.com

Its common to lift one front wheel to reduce rolling drag. The other steers it lightly against rail . Shortest distance to finish is straight line, bouncing side to side is farther. Put slight bend in axle, rotate it to adjust how hard it steers against rail....just a touch.

Theres actually adult pinewood racing leagues where you mail in car and they are raced and videod. Cheap hobby for people with time.


When i was kid i had no help. I sawed off front corner with rusty saw. Scraped edges round on concrete ,(no sandpaper). Painted with leftover housepaint. No added weight. No graphite. Ruined wheels rolling it on kitchen floor. And was dissapointed when my car didnt get all way down track. Made sure that didnt happen to my son.
Its a father-son project ....with limitations. To win...spend time with son building, tuning, racing.

Unfortunately, different parents spend different amount of time and $ with their kids. That will always be case. And a few totally exclude kid and wont let them touch car.
 
Last edited:
I don't have the spare cash laying around to buy all these fancy tools like that. Hell just buying that stupid scroll saw was a HUGE stretch for me. I'm not a woodworker. Never have been. The new rules state specifically all 4 wheels must touch. So it's been frustrating the stuffing outta me. On my first try I had all 4 perfect but I forgot the 7" max length rule and the wheels were extended beyond the car body so I had to redrill. No matter what I did every time the darn little bit hit a hard spot on the wood it walked off center. Now I made a little aluminum jig and it's helped
 
Here's the one I helped on my cousin with for his kids back in 2012 - we took it over to my neighbor's house who has an impressive wood shop, he cut the shape of the car with some sort of bandsaw, then smoothed the shape with a spindle sander, here's a pic of the washers we epoxied in there. Their mom passed on within only a few months after this, maybe 6-9 months.....completely unexpected. I remember Hayden telling me how he did but I don't remember much other than he enjoyed it.

This pic was titled "nothin up my sleeve" :)

412998_2912826821661_302072265_o.jpg
 
Last edited:
On my first car, the block had notches at the front and back and 2 wood axles I guess you'd call them. You attached the wheels to them, then those to the block. It then went to like the pic immediately above where there was a small groove and front and back and you drove your little nails in. We used graphite on the nails and you could cut the wheels down at the time. Did all my woodwork with a little wire frame junior saw and an Exacto knife set. For weight, we drilled holes in the bottom and weighed out some lead fishing sinkers on Mom's diet kitchen scale, melted down on the stove in a soup can and poured the lead into the holes.
 
I had an old .223 shell no gun for it well out came the bullet, I also sacrificed a few .22 cal shells for their bullets, and 3 shotgun shells for the pellets. Everything went on my scale and with all this I am going to bring the weight up to 4.9 oz just a hair shy of the 5 to allow for any scale discrepancies between my VERY accurate electronic scale (which can literally see the difference of one #6 shotgun pellet) and also the weight of the epoxy and paint that will go on it. I am getting the weight distribution to right about 70/30 rear bias which all the literature says rear weight is the best. I finally got axles drilled in "just right" by making my own drill jig out of aluminum angle stock so now all 4 are touching PERFECT. Deadline is tomorrow. So I have to finish polishing and treating the axles and wheels by polishing in some liquid silicone into the metal so there will be no residue. So it should run really clean no graphite dust.
Time trials are tomorrow night race on Saturday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top