Trevor's Last Pinewood Derby, 2017

Trevor is enjoying his last few weeks of Cub Scouts before bridging to Boy Scouts in March. We've visited four local Boy Scout troops so far in hopes that Trevor will find his perfect fit. One troop has risen above the rest, but his decision isn't final yet. Soon, though! Because of this upcoming transition, it has been a year of 'lasts' for Trevor. Here's his last Pinewood Derby car:

As usual, Trevor came up with the design, sketched it, and did the cutting in Grandpa's wood shop. He brought the pieces home to paint and assemble. 

---------

Golden Gate Bridge Derby Car

Materials: 

• Pinewood Derby kit
• dowels
• paint (blue, grey, red-orange)
• craft glue
• black cardstock
• yellow paint pen
• hole punch
• red Twisteez wire

After donning eye protection, Trevor turned the block of wood that would be his car on its side, then used the scroll saw to cut a rectangular portion out. He used the drill press to drill four holes and cut dowels to length to fit in the holes.

He painted the middle portion of the car blue, then let that dry. 

He painted the dowels an orangey-red. 

At this point, he headed out to the garage with Steve to put the wheels on the car. 

Then he painted the ends of the car grey. He used craft glue to put the dowels in place. Then he cut a rectangle of black cardstock and used a yellow paint pen to draw lines down the center. He marked where the road would touch each dowel, then used the hole punch to remove a portion of the road so it would fit around the dowel. He glued the road in place. The final step was cutting the wires and gluing them in place. He used E-6000 and it held well throughout his races.

So how did his car do in the races? Well... Trevor knew going in that his design would be slow and it was. Fortunately, it looked so cool that it made up for its poor performance. That's a bit of a tradition for Trevor - awesome design, so-so speed. You can see all of Trevor's previous awesome designs, including an eraser, a spaceship, a dragon and a mouse here. That same link has my past cars, as well as Steve's and one made by my nephew, Timothy.

Pinewood Derby Car: The E-RACE-R

It's Pinewood Derby season again! As usual, Trevor came up with a really creative design. This year, it's the E-RACE-R.

Other than providing Trevor with the pink paint and showing him how to make a template of the top before doing the lettering to be sure he liked the spacing, I wasn't involved with his car this year. My dad supervised the power tools portion and Steve supervised the wheels and graphite portion. I love that Trevor chose to wear down the corners of his car and smudge them just like a used eraser would look.

His car was not among the fastest, but it was definitely among the most creative.

I'm very tempted to put together a layout of all his Pinewood cars over the years because they've really been fabulous. But since he only has one more year of Cub Scouts before moving up to Boy Scouts, I'm going to hold off and make that layout next year. In the meantime, if you want to see the other Pinewood Derby cars Trevor, Steve and I have made over the years, they're all here. 

2015 Pinewood Derby

Last weekend was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. I always love seeing what Trevor dreams up. I was expecting an animal, since he made a mouse car in 2013 and a dragon car in 2014. Nope. This time it was a spaceship.

He sketched it out and made the cuts with help from my dad during our Christmas visit. He painted and decorated it on his own, then Steve helped him add the wheels and adjust the weight. Here's a different view:

Unfortunately, Trevor's spaceship was significantly slower than the real thing. The spaceship was out of the competition very early, which has been a common theme for Trevor over the years. Good thing he doesn't care. He's much more excited to build and decorate a cool car than a fast one. And he loves cheering on his friends who do design the fast cars.

As usual, Trevor will enter his car in the county fair. The cars are judged on appearance and he has always done very well. Hopefully the judges agree with us all that Trevor's 2015 Pinewood Derby car is out of this world!

2014 Pinewood Derby

The first time I made a Pinewood Derby car was in 2011.  I'd gone through the county fair entry book looking for something I was eligible to enter and stumbled upon an adult category for the Pinewood Derby.  I made a watermelon-themed car that was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.  Steve entered a car too.  (At 5, Trevor was too young to enter).  We had a blast.

The following year, all three of us made cars for the county fair, Steve and I in adult divisions and Trevor as an Open Junior.  My car looked like a box of popcorn.  Again, we all had a lot of fun.  Trevor had a great experience entering for the first time.

Last year Trevor started Cub Scouts, which meant he'd be participating in the Pinewood Derby with his Pack and not just at the county fair.  The Derby was in April, two months earlier than the fair we'd been entering in for the past two years.  We built our cars over spring break.  I went with a rabbit-shaped car.  Again, lots of fun.

We switched Cub Scout Packs over the summer.  The new Pack held their Derby last weekend, four months earlier than last year's Pack and six months earlier than the fair.  The earlier date made it too difficult for all three of us to build cars, so Trevor was the only one entering a Derby car this year.  Here's what he made, with cutting help from Grandpa:

In case someone doesn't recognize it, it's Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon series. Those are Trevor's favorite books.  He loves the movie as well.

Here's Trevor, bringing Toothless to be weighed and checked before the race.

There were approximately 60 cars racing, with lots of friends and family cheering on the Scouts and their cars.  

Toothless raced in the first heat of his age group and won.  It's on the far right in this picture, about to cross the finish line.  As it turns out, that was the only heat he won.  Trevor ended up finishing in the middle of the pack.  Nothing wrong with that.    

Toothless won't race again with the Cub Scouts this season, but he'll be entered at the county fair both to race and to be judged on design and workmanship.  Looking forward to seeing how he does!

Pinewood Derby, 2013

I teased our 2013 Pinewood Derby cars awhile back... three derbies and one fair later, here they are!  Trevor made a mouse....

I made a rabbit...

Steve made a streamlined green car.

Trevor raced his car in three different Pinewood Derbies (Pack, District, and county fair) and finished in the middle of the group all three times.  But he hadn't designed his car for speed... he'd designed it to be adorable, which it is.  The judges at the fair thought so too.  Look, Judges' Favorite!

 

Here's the proud woodworker!

This has nothing to do with Pinewood cars, but I had to show off another proud woodworker. This is my 12-year old nephew, Timothy.  My dad has been teaching him woodworking for years and he has made some amazing things.  This year, his USA intarsia got both Best of Show and Judges' Favorite.

We're already looking forward to Pinewood Derby 2014!

It's almost Derby Time...

... the Pinewood Derby, that is!  

Even though this is Trevor's first year in Cub Scouts, we've been making Pinewood Derby cars for the past two years to exhibit and race at the fair.  We have great fun planning, building and racing our cars.

The first time I made a car was 2011.  My dad has an amazing workshop (more on that later), but we didn't have time to visit before the entry due date, so I was stuck using the tools we have here.  I made one simple cut (by hand) then relied on my painting skills to make a fabulous (if I do say so myself) Watermelon Car.

Last year, we made plans to head to my parents' house to make our cars.  I used a table saw to cut a gentle wedge, then used the drill press to create a bunch of holes on one end.  After chiseling, sanding, painting, decoupaging and gluing, I had an awesome Popcorn Box Car.

Last weekend, we went to my parents' house to use my dad's tools to make this year's cars. As I mentioned, my dad has an incredibly impressive workshop.  He is one of those people who can build or fix anything.  From the time I was born (in 1972) to the time my parents sold our house (1984), my dad more than doubled the square footage of the house (by adding on a playroom and a second story) and made most of the furniture in the house.  He also built a 2-story cabin in the mountains.  And dozens of other things.  All this was in his spare time and without any formal training.

As the oldest child, I grew up "helping" Dad with all his projects.  I was the only 5 year old on the block who knew how to mix mortar and lay bricks.  I could hang drywall and I knew why it was important to countersink a screw.  There are pictures of me around age 7 on the 2-story roof installing shingles.  One of these days, I'll share some pictures of the beautiful woodworking my dad does.  

For now, here are some pictures of us starting our Pinewood cars.  That's my dad helping Trevor use the band saw to rough out the shape of his car.  

 

Next, Grandpa helped Trevor use the belt sander.

 

Then they moved to the drill press, where Trevor drilled a hole where a tail will go.  

 

Safety first!  Dad hadn't yet replaced shop glasses that had broken, so we all wore sunglasses as eye protection.  Here I am, using the belt sander.

 

And here's Steve on the band saw.  

 

Now that we've done all the design work, cutting and sanding, our next step is painting and accessorizing, which we'll work on next week.  I promise to show pictures when they're done! In the meantime, do you have any guesses what our cars will look like?  :)

Pinewood Derby 2012

We had so much fun making and racing Pinewood Derby cars last year that we decided to do it again.  (Click here to see last year's nifty watermelon car.) Here's what I came up with this time.

This year, we worked on our cars in my dad's awesome workshop.  He has every tool imaginable, which made the process so much easier than last year.  I cut my car into a gentle wedge.  Then I used the drill press to drill a bunch of holes on one end, then chisled out the excess wood to create a hole to hold my popcorn.  We did the painting and finishing at home. Here's how it looked after I painted the stripes.

I printed the words Pop Corn in red, then punched out a circle around it.  I adhered that to the car with Mod Podge.  I put a large puddle of glue at the top of the popcorn box, then dropped Mini Pops (made from sorghum, not corn) inside. When the glue was dry, I sprayed the Mini Pops with clear acrylic sealant.

This year Trevor was old enough to enter.  He decided to make an Angry Birds car.  Grandpa showed him how to drill holes, then they glued dowels into the holes.  Trevor painted the car blue.

He drew and cut out Angry Birds characters, then Mod Podged them to the car.  He decorated a cardstock awning as well. 

 

Here's what Trevor's finished car looked like.  

 

Steve finished his at the last second, so I didn't get a picture of his before he had to turn it in.  

Finally, the Big Day arrived!  Before they ever race, the cars are judged on creativity, workmanship, functionality, etc.  I got first place amongst the women!

It was great fun seeing the other cars and how creative some of them were.  I really liked this Ho-Ho.  Only after I checked the tag did I see it was made by my very talented nephew Timothy.

When it came time for the races, they divided all the cars into two groups.  The females raced first.  My car did not fare very well.  Here it is zipping by in third place, which was actually one of its better finishes.  The races are done double-elimination and I was out by my 4th race.  Oh well!  I was going for looks over speed anyway.  

Once the women's races were over, it was time for the males.  All of the males' cars competed against one another, which meant that my husband, six-year old Trevor, 11-year old Timothy, and my dad all had cars in the race.  Here's Trevor, excitedly watching to see how his car would place in its first race.  (Notice the blue lips from the shave ice he'd just finished....)

All four of the guys did better than I did, as none of them were eliminated as early in the competition as my car. Trevor and my dad were out fairly early, then Timothy. Steve's car did the best. His is the sleek orange car zipping by in 2nd place. That's my mom, Timothy, and Trevor looking on.

Eventually Steve was eliminated too.  But no matter!  We had so much fun designing, building, and racing our Pinewood Derby cars.  Can't wait til next year!

My first experience with the Pinewood Derby

As I've mentioned before, I love county fairs and enter things every year.  However, since becoming a judge, I am ineligible to enter any of the categories that I judge, which means that I can't enter the very things I'm best at doing.  It's reasonable, of course, but it means I have to work harder to find categories to enter.

Every year I scour the entry guidebook to see if there is something interesting.  I don't let a silly thing like having no clue how to do make something stop me!  That's how I came to get one of these:

It's an official Cub Scout Pinewood Derby kit.  I've never been a Cub Scout, or made a Pinewood Derby car, or even seen a Pinewood Derby.  I've admired my nephew's cars at the fair over the past few years, but that's the total extent of my knowledge of Pinewood Derby cars.

I noticed that there was a new category at the fair- a men's and women's version of the Pinewood Derby.  A quick email confirmed that entrants did not need to be Cub Scout leaders... this was open to anyone.  I immediately signed myself and Steve up.

My dad is an extremely talented woodworker and has a huge shop full of fancy tools, most of which I know how to operate at a very rudimentary level.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to go to my parents' house before the car needed to be turned in, so I was limited to the few tools we have here.  I opted for the simplest design possible- a basic wedge, which required one straight cut.

I had great fun painting it.  Here's how it turned out:

Steve went for a much more impressive design, using only the very basic tools we have here.  I can't believe he managed such complicated cuts without the proper tools!  Here's his car:

The cars are weighed, placed in the correct weight class (5 oz. or 6 oz.) and then judged on aerodynamic design, creativity, and decoration.  All this takes place well before the race.  We found the cars on display.  Steve got second place in the men's division!

 And I got second place in the women's division!

But wait... when I was uploading these pictures to the blog, I noticed a little something in the top left corner.  

There's a small, red JF.  Being a judge, I know what that means!  Judge's Favorite!  Each judge gets to select one or two favorites that really appealed to him/her for some reason, regardless of how they placed.  Usually, a Judge's Favorite goes to the first place winner, but not always.  Exciting!

The Pinewood Derby started with the mens' and boys' divisions.  Steve's car did very well in its early heats, coming in first or second every time.  Here's a blurry photo of his car zipping by in second place.

Unfortunately, as they got into the later heats, his car did worse and worse and was eventually eliminated.  But it was an excellent showing- the top third of a large field.

As you might imagine, the women's field was not very large... maybe 12 or so cars.  Here's the start of my first race.

I won!  It was so exciting!  I went on to win the next two races too.  Here's a blurry picture of my car zipping by during its third race.

Things soon went downhill (ha!) significantly.  My car was no longer zipping along.  It wobbled, was slower than before, and even jumped the track before being eliminated.  It's pretty clear that it was damaged, either in a race itself or when it was caught at the end of one of the races.  Oh well!  

I loved competing in the Pinewood Derby and definitely plan to do it again next year.  I love that I didn't let a little thing like having no clue what I was doing stop me.