Pinewood Derby

I wasn't really ready for the Pinewood Derby, and we had less time to work on the car than I expected. We went shopping at Lowes for materials on Saturday; the first set races, for our troop, would be Tuesday. That gave us only three days, really, to work on the car.

The block had already been cut at the previous Tuesday's meeting. I'd managed to persuade Sebastian to go with the absolute slimmest design possible; I'm no handyman, but I couldn't help noticing last year that the winners were always the slimmest designs. The design we used was flat on the bottom, and a shallow even arc on the top. I'd guess that 70% of the original block was cut away. The father who was doing the cutting on ours seemed kind of surprised and dubious about it.

The design indicated that we should drill four large holes through the side of the car and fill them with lead (or some other heavy metal). That would require very precise drilling, since there wasn't much wood left to spare. I'd guess those holes were nearly a 1/2 inch across, each! And with nothing but a cheap electric hand-held drill, I was feeling less than confident. I'm really NOT very handy at all (I'd already called my Dad and hinted that we could use his help. He told me it was a father and son type of event. ).
( Read more... )

Any thoughts?

Pinewood Derby

I wasn't really ready for the Pinewood Derby, and we had less time to work on the car than I expected. We went shopping at Lowes for materials on Saturday; the first set races, for our troop, would be Tuesday. That gave us only three days, really, to work on the car.

The block had already been cut at the previous Tuesday's meeting. I'd managed to persuade Sebastian to go with the absolute slimmest design possible; I'm no handyman, but I couldn't help noticing last year that the winners were always the slimmest designs. The design we used was flat on the bottom, and a shallow even arc on the top. I'd guess that 70% of the original block was cut away. The father who was doing the cutting on ours seemed kind of surprised and dubious about it.

The design indicated that we should drill four large holes through the side of the car and fill them with lead (or some other heavy metal). That would require very precise drilling, since there wasn't much wood left to spare. I'd guess those holes were nearly a 1/2 inch across, each! And with nothing but a cheap electric hand-held drill, I was feeling less than confident. I'm really NOT very handy at all (I'd already called my Dad and hinted that we could use his help. He told me it was a father and son type of event. ).
( Read more... )

Any thoughts?