Pinewood Derby Trophies

[Black wallnut]

Just 3 small projects. Maple and walnut. Last year I made 3 for my Pack and our District Executive saw them and asked me to make 3 for the District Race.
So over the course of 2 years I have now made 9 total each one unique.

So little time and materials expended and the Scouts will cherish them for years; well worth the effort!



cars not included! Mine is the middle one, turned on lathe for last years race.

[bthere]

Nice, indeed. I know my 18 year old still has every Pinewood Derby car and trophy he ever had and still volunteers to help the local Packs with their Derby. I think the PWD is the highlight of the year for the Scouts and most cherish the memories.

[bmyers]

Thats great way to pass out trophies. What better way to award a pine car race then with a wooden trophy!

Thanks for sharing.

Bill

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Nice, indeed. I know my 18 year old still has every Pinewood Derby car and trophy he ever had and still volunteers to help the local Packs with their Derby. I think the PWD is the highlight of the year for the Scouts and most cherish the memories.

I have every one of my cars and trophies, over 25 years. Unlike many scouts today, I was actively involved in building mine. I wish there was some requirement for the scout to be involved to a certain degree. The single year my son was in BS all the cars seemed to be built by pros. I roughed my sons out and gave him a lot of verbal instructions, but he did 85% of the car himself. It was disappointing to lose to those other guys, because I knew I could have built a faster car, but then what kind of pride do the participants have?

[John Hunter]

Very nice. The kids will love them.

[Black wallnut]

I have every one of my cars and trophies, over 25 years. Unlike many scouts today, I was actively involved in building mine. I wish there was some requirement for the scout to be involved to a certain degree. The single year my son was in BS all the cars seemed to be built by pros. I roughed my sons out and gave him a lot of verbal instructions, but he did 85% of the car himself. It was disappointing to lose to those other guys, because I knew I could have built a faster car, but then what kind of pride do the participants have?

I still, even as Cubmaster, struggle with this very thing. In our Pack we encourage the older Cubs to do most of the work. This year, as a second year Webelos, my son did 90% or more of the work. Of course he used my well equipped shop! The second place finisher's car was cut out and mortised for the weight kit in my shop, but all the finishing was done by the scout and his father. His entry was shaped like a container ship! The fourth place winner was built 100% by the scout with hand tools. I did not get a chance to inquire on the first and third place winner's role in building their cars. Btw, the 4th place winner is only a Bear (3rd grade), as was the 2nd place winner.

Each of the last two years I have offered any scouts use of my shop and or help in building their cars, with the requirement that they have a parent with them. I have had a few takers. This years 2nd place winner has placed in all three of his years in scouting. He has won 1st and 3rd in other years. Each year I help him cut out his car. What I find interesting is that each year the other cars built with my help do not do as good. What we have learned over the years is it not only takes luck of getting a good kit with good wheels and nails (axles) but the prepping of the wheels and nails along with perhaps weight placement makes the difference between fast and middle of the pack.

FWIW Cub Scouting is a joint venture between Cubs and their parents. It is only once they move on to Boy Scouts that leaders and Parents are told to" never do for a boy what he can do for himself." IMHO at the age boys are when in Cub Scouting parental participation is critical to the program's success. The more we can get parents and their children to spend quality time together in a fun and educational atmosphere the better off everyone envolved is. Even though winning is glorified it is not the whole point. Just looking at the smiles and pride in each young boy as they compete proves it all to be worthwhile. At least from my view as Cubmaster, former Webelos Den Leader, Assistant Scoutmaster, Order of the Arrow Chaper Cheif, Order of the Arrow Lodge Dance Team Cheif, Boy Scout, Webelos Scout, and Cub Scout. I'm thinking that my years with the organization both as a youth and as an Adult leader should add just a smigen of crediability.

[DaveStL]

Each of the last two years I have offered any scouts use of my shop and or help in building their cars, with the requirement that they have a parent with them. I have had a few takers.

Our pack does something unique in our area. We have a "workshop" on a Saturday morning about three weeks before the Derby. We use the school cafeteria and bring in scroll saws, belt sanders, drill presses, plus Dremels, a scale, and sometimes a mini lathe. We have ample adults (that know what they're doing) to supervise the machines, and require that a parent accompany each boy. We have the drill presses set up to make pretty accurate axle holes, machines set up to clean up the wheels and axles, and a jig for a Dremel to hollow out the bottom of the car for flat weights. Lots of free technical advice. We strongly encourage that the boys do the design and woodwork, except for the younger boys on the scroll saws and the Dremel w/ router base.

This is a great equalizer for the boys who have mechanically challenged parents. They can walk out of the workshop with a car body that just needs final weighting, finishing, and wheel installation. Every year we get rave reviews from the new Cubs' parents.

Dave

[Ed62]

Way to go, Mark! Very nice trophies. They'll mean a lot to the kids.

It was disappointing to lose to those other guys, because I knew I could have built a faster car, but then what kind of pride do the participants have?

When our kids were in scouts, there was one guy in the pack who won the Pinewood Derby every year. This guy studied all the dynamics, did probably 100% of the building, and his kid painted it. I was working 2 jobs at the time, and didn't have time to do much of anything else. The day before the competition, we slapped a car together so my son could have something to race. He won the Derby!! Not only did he win, but the other guy said it was because of the difference in the tracks, so they raced again. And he lost again. That was sweet!

Ed

[gsmittle]

Way to go, Mark! Very nice trophies. They'll mean a lot to the kids.
When our kids were in scouts, there was one guy in the pack who won the Pinewood Derby every year. This guy studied all the dynamics, did probably 100% of the building, and his kid painted it. I was working 2 jobs at the time, and didn't have time to do much of anything else. The day before the competition, we slapped a car together so my son could have something to race. He won the Derby!! Not only did he win, but the other guy said it was because of the difference in the tracks, so they raced again. And he lost again. That was sweet!

Ed

The three years I was Cubmaster I had the same kind of troubles. It's funny--the boys just wanted to race their cars--it was the adults who had the issues! All I know is my two boys did most of the work (when they were Wolves I roughed out the body, as they got older they did more of the body work), especially polishing the axles. Both of them won at least second every year, and usually survived a couple of rounds at the district races.

The sad thing is, when we first started PWD, I did a little online research, and I found a few sites on the Web for making cars, and twice as many on how to cheat.

g.

[LCHIEN]

I remember, my son joined the last year of webelos so we only built cars one year. My son's car was the first experience with PW derby and also the last one.
I figured the best way not to overhelp my son was to build my own car. My son's car was pretty much his own work except where I helped with power tools he could not handle and offered some suggestions.
I was also ass't den guy so I helped the den out with some tools and work sessions but no fathers came. I built a ramp with side-by side track positions and the guide rail to help at least friction test the cars.
I was actually kind of exciting being an engineer, I had these dreams I could engineer a faster car - I tried all kinds of things on mine.
In reality I found there was just to much variability in the wheels and axles and the skewing of the track to make a positive advantage by precision woodworking (aligning the wheels) or friction reduction.
The guys who operated the pack were so anal they had a beautiful commercially produced track but wouldn't let anyone touch it for practice or anything until the day of the race, and no practice runs that day, either. needless to say I never got to race my car against anyone elses.

The boy who won, his car was obviously not his own work. Upon my inspection the wheels had been seriously reworked - they had a bevel and rode on an edge - clearly a violation of the rules. Whether violated intentionally or thru ignorance I did not know. I didn't say anything. I figured they would say something at the next level, city-wide or regionals.

Anyway, I was very disappointed by the experience.

The next project for the den was stands for the cars they had made - my design. Pic'd below, my car and the stand. Yes, the post leans fowrard about 15 degrees. car held on with a spot of velcro.

[siliconbauhaus]

It's a shame that a event clearly intended for the den members gets overtaken by the must win at any cost parents.

[billwmeyer]

I had my first experience with the pinewood derby this year. My youngest grandson just started cub scouts. I got about 1 weeks notice before the derby date, but we got it done. I had him involved in every step that he could do. My wife helped him draw out his design, and it was his design. She traced it onto the car which I cut out, then after a little power sanding to take off the rough edges, he finished sanding it by hand, and with help from my wife they came up with a color scheme, which he did most of. I added the wheels, and the weights, and he came up with third place locally, and at the next level he finished somewhere in the top 10. I had the flu at the next step and didn't get to watch him race.

Most of the cars he raced against, I didn't feel the kids had done themselves. It was quite an experience, and he had a car he could be proud of.
Bill

[Mrs. Wallnut]

Well I thought I would post this. These are the boys that won at this years PWD, with their trophies. It was a fun day for our whole family. I like watching the boys race and I think this is the only time our son will sit and watch something the whole time through.



And this next picture is of our son and his car which he got to cut out on the BS himself, which he was very proud of doing. And the one of Mark and Richard were them discussing some more sanding that needed to be done.





Sorry for all the pictures but I am very proud of Richard for the work he did on the car and also of Mark for making the trophies.

[BearPipes-1]

Mine's the one on the right in the original photo. ;-)

Maybe one of the benefits, I guess, of having a workaholic father, was that he already had a job with too much to do. One side effect was that my pinewood derby cars were 100% mine. I roughed them out, I rasped and sanded, I nailed, and I put in the screws (aluminum standoffs one year to mount what I thought was a really boss rear spoiler).

I didn't get to use his Shopsmith, but on the other hand, I don't recall taking any grief about all the coping saw blades I bent/broke.

I recall some pretty inelegant decoration schemes, especially an overabundance of decals borrowed from my plastic model kits. And I also remember being kind of embarrassed by the award I got one year because the car was so obviously done solely by me...I think I was 8, and even then I knew it was effectively a "wow, that car looks terrible" award, though they had a much more gracious official title for the award.

I've mostly gotten over that, though. And it was a fun way of spending some time in the garage at the workbench Dad made me, which was right next to my big brother's (bigger) bench.

Times and tool availability have changed, but unless I were making a bunch of derby racers, or wanted to show my son how to use the bandsaw (not anytime soon!), I think the human-powered tools and the corresponding independence were just right. Dad would always answer my questions, but he wasn't there having to avoid rolling his eyes at the -- let's face it -- utter crap I was making. For me, that was the right thing, and the fact that I won a few heats (never any races) was icing on the cake.

Fortunately, my wife has similar tolerance of the -- let's face it -- utter crap I make today. At my current rate of improvement, I hope to be an awesome, or at least competent, craftsman ... in about 3.6 lifetimes.

;-)

[lrogers]

Very cool! The kids are going to love those. I think it's great that you are doing that for the kids. Later this month, I get the chance to introduce some Cub Scouts to the r/c helo hobby. I'm really looking forward to that.