Pinewood Derby

[00Buck]

the only thing more competitive than rockcrawling-wheeling is these crazy Pinewood derby competitions.
I know of one member on here that has claimed victory since he was eight years old and just won and adult comptition last week.
Post up your tricks and suggestions. -- I have a derby to win.

 

[?JMAMA]

If this is for your son, then you need to watch Down and Derby first.

 

[00Buck]

It would be an adult derby - and yes there will be Kool-Aid and Cookies after. But I am sure there will be some parking lot brawls too.

 

[DevinB]

Are there rules? If not, glue the end of a tape measure on the front of your car, lay tape down the track and through the finish gate. When the light turns green, release the tape and watch your car KILL everyone. Otherwise...

graphite on the bearings (well, where bearings WOULD be)
rig it so only three wheels touch the ground
round the tires' contact patch so there's minimal material touching the track

Do a google search, I think there are whole forums dedicated to this.

 

[00Buck]

Gosh that is cute

 

[V-DAWG]

graphite on the bearings (well, where bearings WOULD be)
.

When I won, I used plenty of graphite, and I placed washers between the wheels and the car. (Not sure if the washers are legal or not...)

 

[Spork]

Don't think it's cub scout legal but fill wheels with graphite and tape over to keep in. (hubcap style)

 

[78mitsu]

Graphite doesn't work any where near as well as polishing the nails to a 2000# surface then use pledge on them (waxing them) where the car is so light, the graphite tends to slow the wheels down plege on the other hand.... also as has been said before, reduce the contact patch of the wheels to virtually nothing. a sander works pretty good, also you want the wheels to turn so lightly scuff the entire bottom surface of the wheels with about 200# paper. it worked for me 3x champ (11 yrs old)

 

[00Buck]

Graphite doesn't work any where near as well as polishing the nails to a 2000# surface then use pledge on them (waxing them) where the car is so light, the graphite tends to slow the wheels down plege on the other hand....

I would have never thought of using pledge on a pinewood derby car but it makes perfect sense. This looks like it is going to take more than a few hours to build.

 

[RWH]

You Can't Beat The Wedge!!!

 

[jkferguson]

Chuck the nails up in a drill to polish them. Just the end that goes into the car body and use emery cloth until you are using the back side of the emery cloth.

 

[DaveB]

The axles and wheels are by far the most important. You can use "after market" axle shafts rather than the nails which work much better. Also put your weights in the back of the car, this gets the weight up higher on the track giving it a bit more potential energy.

 

[Rusted]

Fastest car in the hood since I was 8



How about you just borrow the car that I just made? Isn't that easier?

 

[00Buck]

How about you just borrow the car that I just made? Isn't that easier?

Rusted,

You never offered that when we were eight years old!!! Does that mean I need to let you borrow my jeep?

 

[Rusted]

I never offered because you were the compitition! After last weeks race I have a few more ideas to make it faster, but if you want to borrow the car you are welcome to it. Your pinewood derby can be done in 1 minute if you want it to be

 

[bobdog]

I always wondered why I could never do very well at the pinewood derbys. When I was 19 I started working at a place that had a small machine shop and my boss was into the derbys big time. The kids in his pack or troop or whatever would always be in the championships. I realized then that I had never had a chance. Too bad they cant figure out a way to make the derbys more fair for the kids whos dads don't have access to that kind of equipment and know how. I always built my cars my self.

It has been a long time, but I do remember the wheels and axles were always turned on a lathe. I was shown several examples of wheels that changed over time as the rules had changed. Alignment was important and so was weight distribution. Bodies were lightened in places and weight added in others.

 

[StrobeNGH]

Did anyone ever race CO2 cars in school? I remember spending weeks making little drag racers in middle school wood shop.

 

[V-DAWG]

Did anyone ever race CO2 cars in school? I remember spending weeks making little drag racers in middle school wood shop.

Those were awesome! I remember a CO2 cartridge "accidentally" being set off and striking a kid right in the forehead- we didn't get to handle the cartridges on our own after that.....

 

[RWH]

I made a killer one, i think i still have it somewhere here -the wheels.