Kids got a race coming up with the block of wood type derby cars. Anyone have any tips on how to make these things fast? Or better yet can I borrow some ringers for Wednesday hahah
Derby car tips
- Thread starter Sniperwannabee
- Start date
Just Google winning formulas. It’s gonna include all the aftermarket upgrades on wheels, axles, graphite powder lube, tungsten weights and seems a simple wedge design wins. Just my limited experience looking into it.
There are bunches of sites with tip to make the car faster. Here are couple.
www.derbydust.com
If you only have until Wednesday focus on polishing the axles and aligning the wheels. Get as close to the max weight as possible, more potential energy creates more kinetic energy. Also get the weight as close to the rear and top of the car as you can without making the front too light.
There is a lot of physics involved in these races if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
It can be a good time with your kid. Let him do as much as he can to build the car. He will remember it later in life.
Free Pinewood Speed Tips
Free Pinewood Speed Tips For Derby Car design templates. Make better wheels, axles, car body design. Must use these tips to get advantage.
www.derbydust.com
Top 5 Speed Tips for Your Pinewood Derby Car
Discover the top 5 Pinewood Derby Speed tips you need to know. From polishing axles to weight, this article has it.
www.pinewoodderbycars.com
If you only have until Wednesday focus on polishing the axles and aligning the wheels. Get as close to the max weight as possible, more potential energy creates more kinetic energy. Also get the weight as close to the rear and top of the car as you can without making the front too light.
There is a lot of physics involved in these races if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
It can be a good time with your kid. Let him do as much as he can to build the car. He will remember it later in life.
Just drill it out and put a CO2 cartridge for weight and pop it off when the race starts. It’ll take first guaranteed 
Make sure it tracks straight and no wheel wobble. Don't be a dick about it. Let your kids have fun.
Turn your wheels on a lathe to lighten the wall thickness on the inside of the wheel.Then put a slight radius on the wheel so only a thin point of the wheel will be riding on the track surface. If you can get away with it set it up so it rides on 3 wheels instead of all four. A little teflon washer between the wheel and the wood also helps.
More specifically, chuck the wheel nails, and spin them while pinching 00 steel wool right under the head. Polishes the hell out of them. Then a squirt of graphite In the wheel holes.
I always won or placed high at these races, my co2 rocket car was so good they took it from me to use as an example. Thing didn’t even come close to losing.
Don’t over think it, polish the axles, lube them, and Id usually put my weight right in front of the rear wheels, I liked the round flat fishing weights. Also use a little common sense on the shape of the car. Use the thin peaked pizza cutter wheels not the old school drag slick looking style if allowed.
Hollow out the front of the car so you can add more weight in front of the rear axles
Don’t over think it, polish the axles, lube them, and Id usually put my weight right in front of the rear wheels, I liked the round flat fishing weights. Also use a little common sense on the shape of the car. Use the thin peaked pizza cutter wheels not the old school drag slick looking style if allowed.
Hollow out the front of the car so you can add more weight in front of the rear axles
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Don't make it Dad's Derby Car, let your kid do the work and you be a guide.
It was good times when Derby cars were the topic in my house.
They are in need of some repair....
They never ran fast but they looked good.
They are in need of some repair....
They never ran fast but they looked good.
When my son was in scouts, his best friend was a kid whose dad never took much time for him, so he did the car 100% on his own. His car was the worse looking piece of crap by far...but somehow the thing was fast, and he made it to the final round. I had access to a machine shop, and all the fancy shit I did came up short to whatever magic was in his car. After that I gave up....LOL
Wedge design, with CG about 1" in front of the rear axle. I made a jig to drill the axle holes at a 2° angle, and I raise one of the front wheels so it doesn't touch the track (run the car on 3 wheels).
We did well last time with a longer wheel base, with the rear axles all the way to the rear so the wheels were just inside the envelope. If you do that, it takes a bit of creativity with the shape to get the CG in the right place. Even though it is a little thicker than the block you get in the kit, I rip a 2x4 to the right width with square corners.
First of all, get your car to the maximum weight with out going over. you want the center of gravity just infront of the back axles. Too far back, and the front end will jump up during the race.
Next, chuck your axles up in a drill, and with a small file, lightly file off the burrs on the heads of the axles. After that, polish the axles to a mirror finish. I polished up to 1200 grit sandpaper.
Next, get a mandrel that will hold the wheels. Chuck the wheels up in your drill. Polish the "treads" to a mirror finish. Look online and get some good racing graphite. coat the axles and put the wheels on the car.
Next, on a very flat floor, push the car across the floor. It will probably pull to the right or the left.
Gotta go to work. Will finish this when I get there.
Next, chuck your axles up in a drill, and with a small file, lightly file off the burrs on the heads of the axles. After that, polish the axles to a mirror finish. I polished up to 1200 grit sandpaper.
Next, get a mandrel that will hold the wheels. Chuck the wheels up in your drill. Polish the "treads" to a mirror finish. Look online and get some good racing graphite. coat the axles and put the wheels on the car.
Next, on a very flat floor, push the car across the floor. It will probably pull to the right or the left.
Gotta go to work. Will finish this when I get there.
I'm back.
OK, You want your car to track as straight as possible. Roll the car across a clean flat floor. It'll probably pull to the right or left. If it rolls straight, stop!
If it pulls right or left, pull the front axles out, take a back saw, and removing just the slightest amount of wood, adjust to groove to straighten the tracking of the car. Put the front axles back in, and roll it across the floor again. Repeat until the car rolls straight. At that point STOP! Very carefully, flip the car over, mix up some epoxy, and very carefully glue all four axles into place. Do not remove the axels to do this. Be careful to not get any epoxy on the part of the axle that the wheel rides on. Allow the epoxy to harden, and don't touch the car again until race day.
On race day, take a paper plate with you to the race. Just before turning the car into the "officials", sprinkle some graphite onto the paper plate. Roll all four wheels through the graphite to coat the "treads". Turn the car in immediately. Tell your son, when he picks up his car to race it, do not touch the wheels, and please don't drop the car.
Ask me how I know this works?
Good luck with the race, and let us know how it turns out.
Also, talk to your pack leaders, but for a little extra fun, have an adults race. Let the parents and leaders build a car and have the adults race after the first round of the boys race, while the race times are all being reviewed. The adults take it a lot more serious than the kids, and it is a lot of fun watching the adults race their cars.
WARNING:
Whatever you do, DON'T let your cub-scout leader 'help' your entry by adding any of the Special/Super-Duper/NASA-Engineered/MARS Rover approved/Fancy-Schmancey 'oil' tube (that he keeps in his pocket protector to add that 'extra-secret' special """help""" to make everyone's car run better.
Adding any oil to any graphite turns it into a sludge/mud that slows things down.
Yeah, I learned this is one trick that the Scout Leader I worked with, used, to 'kill the competition'. Of course he didn't use it on his own son's car.
Whatever you do, DON'T let your cub-scout leader 'help' your entry by adding any of the Special/Super-Duper/NASA-Engineered/MARS Rover approved/Fancy-Schmancey 'oil' tube (that he keeps in his pocket protector to add that 'extra-secret' special """help""" to make everyone's car run better.
Adding any oil to any graphite turns it into a sludge/mud that slows things down.
Yeah, I learned this is one trick that the Scout Leader I worked with, used, to 'kill the competition'. Of course he didn't use it on his own son's car.
You know, I did this as a kid a zillion years ago and don't recall how I fared but it was fun. Then when my sons got into it I helped them with shaping/carving the wood blank and painting and setting the weights and axles but I really let them do most all of the work as IMO that's what it's all about. In the end, they had fun and learned some stuff. It's not always about winning or losing. Just make it fun and learning for your kids.
Well seems like the car dies after the halfway mark , tonight is the final, I seen quite a few cars go under 2.7 seconds so I don’t expect to much. When I raced the top three cars my car would win or be even to the halfway mark then slowly die out. I think i need a better alignment
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For next year...
After my kids got out of Cubs and into Scouting, I put this together on what they and others did for different Cub Packs. The first part is the easy fun part. The last part of the PPT is the stretching physics to win by millimeters.
Here's a summary of that, which should at least get you to district races if not also to council. FYI, most of the entries and very very few of the winners at council races (IMHO as an engineer) were built by the kits.
Good luck.
After my kids got out of Cubs and into Scouting, I put this together on what they and others did for different Cub Packs. The first part is the easy fun part. The last part of the PPT is the stretching physics to win by millimeters.
Here's a summary of that, which should at least get you to district races if not also to council. FYI, most of the entries and very very few of the winners at council races (IMHO as an engineer) were built by the kits.
Good luck.
There have actually been a fair number of troops that have Dad races. Most of the ones I saw had extremely tight races as most of the Dad cars had a team build the car: Guys with precision lathes thinning the inside of the wheels for minimum mass in the other areas, perfectly turned 'axle' nails, most weights were between 5.0 and 5.049 ounces, plating graphite to the inside of the plastic axels, and a couple that took advantage of the difference in the angle of the car at the top and the bottom to squeeze a few more microsecond out. We had to go to electronic timing at one time as the cars were so tight.
Agree let the kids have fun. Let the Dad's race each other.
P.S. One very fair way to build the cars for the kids is to have the kids build the cars at a meeting without adult help (but supervision).
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