Pinewood Derby - Michigan Style
So my son had to build a pinewood derby car for school. Neither of us is particularly creative but we're both pretty proud of the result. Plus we beat the all green car with the white "S" sticker by a full car-length (suck it Sparty neighbor's kid!). Thought I'd share.
Go Blue.....even in Pinewood Derby.
MOD EDIT: Thanks to JBA for the e-mail. The photos should now work - LSA
September 19th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
You do have photos, right?
September 19th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
Unfortunately I should have taken pictures/videos of the race but I'm not that dad.
September 19th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
Please tell me you used only the materials provided in the approved kit.
September 19th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
Only thing we used not in the kit was some tape we used to mark the lines in the paint. We did the whole thing in yellow and then taped the helmet design on and painted over it with blue and pulled the tape to reveal the design. The stickers and everything were in the package.
September 19th, 2014 at 12:11 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 5:33 PM ^
Cool, you painted it just like the real helmets . . . they are not yellow wings painted on a blue helmet, but rather a yellow helmet with the blue outline of the wings painted on them.
September 19th, 2014 at 7:49 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
pictures not showing up
September 19th, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^
Thats weird. I can see them in Google Chrome.
September 19th, 2014 at 12:36 PM ^
I'm in Chrome too but it says I need to login to AOL to view them, so I can't see them. You should share photos you want everyone to see in a more public forum like Imgur not AOL.
September 19th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
look like a winged helmet.
It worked well until the wheels fell off.
September 19th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
The link in the photos goes to an AOL mailbox, it seems. If you can get the photos into a service like Photobucket or whatnot, you can just paste their auto-generated HTML into the OP while in plain text mode. You can rescale the photos within MGoBlog's interface - 400-ish pixels should fit nicely in the box. Let me know if you need some assistance.
September 19th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
You're talking way outside my understanding. I can email the pictures to you off my phone.
September 19th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^
E-mail them to cookle[at]dteenergy[dot]com and I will get them posted in just a few minutes.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:28 PM ^
Just sent. Thanks for the help. Hope they're worth it.
September 19th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
Yes. Very nice pics.
September 19th, 2014 at 4:57 PM ^
JBA: Those are sweet pics. Very nice paint job and congrats on beating State.
Now, slightly OT but related to your technical help, how do you embed tweets in comments? I tried to do that yesterday but when I pasted in the embed code that Twitter provides it starts with blockquote so then it just showed a small empty yellow box.
September 19th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^
As someone said, the pictures are not showing, but I'd like to see them. I was in Boy Scouts and did pinewood derby races. My father, who has an artistic mind, but is also a retired cop now, did my designs for me since I was just a kid and didn't know how to, plus I am not artistic at all. Anyway, three of my cars one best design three years in a row. One year I did one that had these cool flames on it. Not very creative, but it won. The second year it was an awesomely made pencil and then the third award in year three was a pink and grey eraser.
September 19th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
Are you my brother?
My Dad is now a retired Michigan State Trooper and also had a pretty artistic mind.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:42 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^
There is an adult derby league that I was thinking of getting into. Apparently there is a guy who did a scientific study on these things and yes they are giving grants for pinewood derby research. The jist is keep the weight as far back as you can bend the axel to decrease the wheels contact area, make it "ride the rail" with only three wheels touching the track.
September 19th, 2014 at 7:18 PM ^
Yep, that was mine and my dads strategy. We would sand it down to be super thin with a slight taper towards the back and hollow out near the wheels and out in small weights. We won everything
September 19th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
I loved the Pinewood derby as a kid...won 3rd in my first year ever and got a pretty nice trophy, which my Mom still has (natch).
Ironically, I totally half-assed the design that year and it was super fast. All other years I put a bunch of time and effort in and my cars sucked. Engineering: not my strong suit.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:17 PM ^
I still have some pinewood derby trophies....somewhere. My dad and I made a UM car that won nothing, but he put a battery and a speaker in it, and when you pressed a button, it played The Victors. Then he glued a tiny Michigan football on the front. I still have the football (after it fell off) on my bookshelf.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
September 19th, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
Don't let Brandon know, he'll have lawyers at your door looking for a cut.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
Weight distribution and wheel friction are the most important. You want most of your weight in the rear and you want to grind the ridges off the nails and polish them/add graphite.
September 19th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
I now know what Desmond Morgan would look like if he was a race car.
September 19th, 2014 at 7:12 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 4:18 PM ^
My son and I are grizzled veterans of the Pinewood Derby wars. We got pretty good at it and won a bunch of championships:
We prided ourselves on doing it without any special tools or skills and without cheating.
Holy smokes, what an eye opener that was . . . the amount of cheating that goes on. In the freakin Cub Scouts of all places. Lathed wheels, machined axles, synthetic oils . . . all kinds of stuff specifically against the rules.
You even had people showing up with $100 cars they bought on the internet. At that point, all you are doing is racing credit cards. What kind of an example does that set for a nine-year old boy? By the time you got to Districts, it was a veritable den of thieves.
If you'd like some advice on how you can build a winning car without having to be a machinist or a master woodworker, and without cheating, let me know.
September 19th, 2014 at 4:31 PM ^
...in NASCAR:
If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'!!!
September 19th, 2014 at 4:35 PM ^
Yeah, who knew it started so early?
At least these kids will be ready for the SEC.
September 19th, 2014 at 9:04 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 8:07 AM ^
Your timing is good in that you are just starting out. It gives you time to learn and get better so that by the time he is a Webelos, you and he will be masters. Plus, any Pinewood-specific stuff you buy like a scale or wheel gapper or mandrel tool can be reused from year to year.
If you'd like a recipie for building a winning car without having to be an engineer/machinist/woodworker (and without cheating!), let me know an email contact address. It's tl;dr for a board post, but if the mods would allow it, it could be an OT Diary post.
In the meantime, here is a video that is helpful in explaining the principles and some of the techniques to build a fast car:
September 19th, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^
Race results sound like a good omen
September 19th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
September 19th, 2014 at 7:10 PM ^
When you have kids you will get another shot at it. The internet makes it so much easier for you and your son or daughter to learn what to do.
September 20th, 2014 at 1:21 PM ^
You're right, if the internet would have been available when I was trying to build my cars it would have been SO helpful. Instead, I ended up rolling out a turdbox on wheels.