pinewood race car...

Art Mulder

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Location
London, Ontario
Here is what I've helped my 10yr old son with ( a bit ;) ) off and on over the last month.
pinewood-l.jpg

Tonight is the weigh-in. This morning we just finished putting on the steel ball-bearing weights, and we're at around 132/133 grams. The max allowed weight in our club is 140gm, so I think we're good there.

[aside: the weights were a big pain in the neck. When we finished the car, I was surprised to discover that it was only half of the allowed maximum weight. It was not easy trying to find about 65gm of weight in my shop that were not enormous bolts or such like. 1" diameter washers only weighed about 5 gm. If I start drilling holes for them, the car would quickly be in pieces! We found these ball bearings in a magnet-discover-kit-toy that my son just got, and decided to make them a feature instead of trying to hide them.]

Next week is the race. The boys club from our church compets against the girls club. Ear protection is almost mandatory, as the volume that 75 kids can create in a church basement is truly awe inspiring.
pinewood-r.jpg

The design was my son's. I did the bandsaw work (the top angle) and he did the scroll-saw work (the side curves) as well as the sanding and painting. He chose the lightning bolt as well.

Even if we lose the race, I think he's already a winner. :D :thumb:
 
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Go greased lightning GO!!!! :thumb:

Now, honestly, how many wheels touch the racing surface........ :rolleyes: :D

Good luck, and I agree, no matter the outcome, you have a winner there!! :clap:
 
Looking good! Thanks for letting your son do his own work (coming from a Scout who made his own car and was very embarrassed when he saw the other kid's cars:eek: ). I bet he'll hold these times as fond memories when he's helping his son.:)

Oh, tell your son Great Job!!
Wes
 
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Kind of fun to dig up this old thread that I started back in 2007.

It's now 2013, and there have been a lot of "cars down the track" since that old thread. We have four kids, and my wife is now a counsellor at the girls club. (At our church the boys and girls clubs compete against each other with pinewood cars.

that adds up to a lot of cars that I've had a hand in helping my kids build over the years:
IMG_2845.jpg

Here's the four of ours that competed this year:
IMG_2837.jpg

Didn't make the finals this time... the competition is stiff. There are few dads who have really gotten into the science of pinewood racing. But we had a great time, as usual. And there is always next year! :thumb:

Our club track set up in the atrium at church:
DSC_4700_2.jpg

And here's my youngest's car in it's first race, against a friend of his.
DSC_4719.jpg

Couple more shots and some discussion on building techniques at my website, if you're interested in more.
 
There are some creative designs there Art. :thumb: My wife and I were dating when I helped my step-son with his first car. I went out and bought my band saw just for the job, which was his first power tool he ever used. I hadn't bought a sander yet, so he didn't enjoy what came after. I saw the car in a box up in my shop the other day actually, nothing as creative as some of those, but it did OK.
 
Darren, it gets harder every year in some ways, since they are the ones who have to come up with another design.
My daughter is a big challenge since she doesn't really care about cars and so we've got this "food" theme going with her cars!
 
I agree with Darren...the latest designs are great. I especially like the Popcicle car. I'm betting that was your daughter's doing. :D
 
Brings back wonderful memories :)
Great looking car. Just the dad and son teamwork has more worth than first place. Your son will remember it forever :thumb:

We had 3 winners. Be sure to polish and graphite the axels and keep as much weight as possible on the rear wheels. Starts out slow then goes like heck.
 
I turned down a commission this year. A father had remade a pinewood car his son had "ruined" ... three times. He wanted to hire me to sand and finish the fourth attempt. Actually I didn't turn it down, but set a rate that would have paid for finishing a real car. When he asked if I knew someone who could do it cheaper, I suggested his son. I don't think he found me funny.

I have done the bandsaw cuts for our neighbor's son several times, but I made sure the car was primarily made by the kid, not the father or me. Maybe I am odd, but this should be a kid project, or a parent/child joint effort.
 
I turned down a commission this year. A father had remade a pinewood car his son had "ruined" ... three times. He wanted to hire me to sand and finish the fourth attempt. Actually I didn't turn it down, but set a rate that would have paid for finishing a real car. When he asked if I knew someone who could do it cheaper, I suggested his son. I don't think he found me funny.

I have done the bandsaw cuts for our neighbor's son several times, but I made sure the car was primarily made by the kid, not the father or me. Maybe I am odd, but this should be a kid project, or a parent/child joint effort.

Good on you Charlie! I cut out my nephew's last year on the bandsaw, but he did the rest. You can get them cut out on the bandsaw for free at the Woodsmith store here locally as well. But you are spot on about it being a parent/child joint effort...that's the point of it afterall, IMHO. Although in some cases (such as my BIL) the parent might not know how to help the kid out. Wonder if his dad thought of asking you to help/mentor his son rather than do it for him.

Art, those are some wild designs. I always went with a simple design and and piled on the paint to make it look cool. One of my favorite memories of scouts...thanks for sharing!
 
It’s race time again here in London, so time to resurrect this old thread and post some more photos…
NOTE: faces are blurred for privacy reasons -- well, except for my own family members

(I wrote a web page last year, with a lot more photos and details which you can see here: www.wordsnwood.com/2013/kubkars/)

Every year we have Pinewood Derby / cub car / Kubkar races in our church. And it is always a noisy, boisterous and fun evening. Both our boys club and girls club build cars, so there is a lot of fun "boys-vs-girls" rivalry going.

Our family produced five cars this year, pictured here. Only two were in the actual "competition". Three of them were in the leader/counsellor/adult category which is just run for fun and bragging rights after the real races — no trophies there.

From L-R we have a rocket/missile thing, flat green thing, seahorse, Minecraft Slenderman, and a Pink Marshmallow Peep


Yours truly with our two oldest sons against the side wall taking in the action.


Here are my two oldest son’s cars lined up and ready to race


My oldest was manning the track-end for a while. They have some foam to catch the cars as they leave the track. You can see one black car in mid-bounce. All eyes are on the end, though the electric eyes on the track are the ones that determine the winner:


Here is my wife’s car (on the left) out of the starting block.
They rebuilt the track launching system this year. Instead of a manual system where the pins tilt down out of the way, they now have an air-driven system. You can see the red air hoses at the bottom. The 3 track pins are now on a piston and drop down vertically into the track very quickly.


There were 69 kid’s running cars, and we run triple-elimination (you need to lose three times to be out), so there were a LOT of races!



See You Next Year!
 
Great times Art, really good to hear numbers of kids that took part. Love the designs, not easy given the restrictions. :)
For weights i went to the fishing tackle box and got some slit "shot like" sinkers , drilled out base and banged them in. They come in a variety of sizes so you can add weight incrementally in small amounts.

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