2006 Pinewood Derby

The twins brought home their blocks of pine and plasic wheels to fashion cars from once again. The annual pinewood derby was going to once again have us ask favors for getting the wood cut and the axles (nails) polished.

We would, of course, procrastinate as long as possible but time was running short, so we called upon my business partner to use his fine wood-working tools to cut the rectangular blocks into the designs the boys had drawn onto the blocks.

The boys then hand sanded their car until it was quite smooth and we applied a layer of primer and sanded again. We then went to the craft store and bought some small cans of paint, Purple Metallic for Kevin and Red Metallic for Kyle. We applied 3 coats of the paint, lightly sanding after each one. The paint job turned out pretty well.

They boys then took their wheels across the street to the neighbor who lightly sanded/polished the nail axles so that the wheels would run smooth. He also applied some graphite to the axles in order to ‘grease’ the wheels.

The only thing we forgot was to weigh the cars. Both were going to need weight, and thankfully we had had a small area routered out underneath the cars where the weights could be attached without lowering the clearance of the vehicle. It took almost an ounce of weight to bring each car up to the 5 ounce limit.

The last thing we had to do the morning of the race was to affix the wheels to the car. This is always a tricky operation that looks so simple. The little nail is pushed into a pre-cut slot, but if you don’t push it in straight then the wheel will not run true or worse, you split the wood. This year I did not have any trouble, but next year I plan on adding a drop of superglue to the axle so that it cannot get pushed too far in and cause drag.

The race was held at the Sunnyside Christian School with the same track that has been used for years. A number of years ago some of the counselors wired the track so that each lane is timed. The kids all have a chance to run in each lane and then the results are based on the cumulative time. The other great thing about the software is that after the first race the cars are grouped by speed so the kids are all racing against cars of similar speed so almost everyone gets a chance to win a heat, even if they don’t win the race.

Trophies are given for the fastest cars, the most realistic cars, and the most creative cars. The Tri-Cities did not have anyone win the speed contest this year, but we did bring home 2 trophies for the most creative cars - Prescott’s Taco Car and Kurt’s Lochness Monster Car. There were quite a few good cars. I especially liked the U-Haul Truck that Mitch made and one of the counselors made a cement truck that used a camshaft and rubber band to spin the mixer as the truck went down the track.

All-in-all the kids had a great time and are already talking about ideas for next years race.

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