Ahhh! The Pinewood Derby, where young boys get the 1st taste of racing, and the fact that life is not fair and just. Where a kid can work his butt off to build the car himself, and be justifiably proud of it,only to get beat by a kid who couldn't tell you what the axle that the wheel spins on is made of ( because he never saw it till Dad brought it home from work already to race).
In our pack you were required to run the stock wheels, axles, and use the kit wood block. There were a lot of single mom's who had no woodworking tools, or grasp of what was required. the 1st year I knew we had a problem. The cars ranged from the square block colored with markers - to high-tech Pro-stock looking wonders. No surprise who won. To help even things out we decided we would have a couple of pack meetings that were Pinewood Derby Workshops, starting 2 months before the race.
I would bring my tabletop bandsaw, scroll saw, belt/disc sander, and assorted other tools. We set up stations, had templates for various designs, and helped the boys draw the shape they wanted on the block. They then got to put on safety glasses and stand next to the person who used the power tools to cut the blank, while we explained things like grain direction, feed speed, different saws for different types of cuts. You know the stuff they used to teach you in Shop class- back when they had Shop class.
With a rough cut blank in had each kid got a sheet of 80, 100, and 240 grit sandpaper, and a full sheet of directions that gave step by step detailed instructions for shaping, filling, sanding, priming, sanding,sanding, sanding,painting and final assembly. It even had some secrets like axle polishing and wheel alignment,graphite lube, etc.
The results were great, the cars looked better, the kids were proud of their handiwork, and the races were more competitive. Yes the Dad built cars still tended to dominate, but they didn't blow out thefield anymore. We also had lots of prizes for things like Coolest Looking, Wildest paint, Most original, and one called "I did it all Myself".
My son learned early on that if he wasn't totally sick and tired , arm sore and covered in dust the of sanding on his car, he didn't get to spay the paint on. in fact he learned that after he was sick of sanding- he got to spray primer on- then sand it all off. Do that a few times and the thing starts to feel pretty slick. All primer and color was cheap spray paint from home Depot, but they look pretty good.
It was a good experience, and I think a bunch of kids did learn some basic woodworking- and that makes them pretty rare in todays world.
Topic: Pine wood Derby (Read 4404 times)
