Pine Wood Derby

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Mark Jones
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by Mark Jones »

dustybugger wrote:
Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:27 am
You may need to touch this up a bit. This baby scoots!
Made me laugh.
Mark Jones

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Uncle Bob
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by Uncle Bob »

I was a Cubmaster years ago.... We had a "regulation" track and bought an electronic finish line. That solved a LOT of issues with trying to sight who came in first, second and third. With the elapsed times and length of track, I calculated the models were doing close to 200MPH.

Kids loved the electronic finish line, plus a lot more time to run additional races.

Uncle B

Mark Jones
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by Mark Jones »

My Derby Car is in clamps on the kitchen table it's a bit cold out in the garage tonight. I used one of the derby car models on this site and stretched it and mirrored it and then carved it this afternoon. I bought Aspire about a month ago and have just started doing 3d modeling.
I only did the side profile and not the top profile of the car. Next year I will do more with Aspire and do something wow with it. This should turn out pretty good. I have made with a scroll saw our Ranger Moto into Ranger Derby cars each year until I have the whole moto. Ready! Ready for Anything, Ready to Work, Play, Serve, Worship, Live and Obey God's Word. Most of those have won 1st place design trophies in the leaders class.

This Saturday we will have anywhere from 75 to 150 cars racing on 2 of our Super Timer 2 tracks, It times them to the thousands of a second. Years back we had 400 cars racing on 3 tracks. Those were some busy race days. 4 hours of racing is enough already.

I have built 2 wooden tracks and hundreds of cars over the years. I go for design most of the time. Every now and then speed gets my goat.

After downloading one of the files and loading it up in Aspire t had Machine surface checked(almost always I use top of material for z) and it took me a few trips back and forth to change it back to my default of material surface. It's fun sharing files and the Vectric warnings of check your settings is very valid. Great software and enjoy using it.
Mark Jones

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jarm2
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by jarm2 »

I was a Den leader, Scoutmaster, Commisssioner, and District Commissioner with my son, and I think folks are missing something here.

The whole idea of the Pine Wood Derby was for the boys to make their own cars with Dad's or Mom's assistance and guidance. If the young lad actually designed and made the car on the cnc that would fit within the goals of the Derby. For the Dads to have fun with their exotic designs after the boys race sounds like a lot of fun, but you sure don't want to discourage any creativity from the boys and to take away from the learning experience. There sure are some cool designs shown here, though.
Aspire 11 ViaCAD Pro 12 Corel 2019 W 10, 2.2 kw spindle wireless pendant

Mark Jones
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:38 pm
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by Mark Jones »

Great points on a boy built car. After 31 years of running races and watching "Down and Derby" it is very easy to see and I have witnessed many times over where Dad's can take all the joy out of a boy making a car and letting it go. Saturday we had 150 Ranger Derby cars (Pinewood Derby) with about 45 lego cars.
My 14- to 18-year-old Ranger young men are not as excited to make derby cars and race them. I know the Older Boy Scouts don't do pinewood derby but in Royal Rangers it's all ages as well as adults. My cars only race against other leaders. The older boys this next year they will be taught how to design one using Aspire and then cut it out on a CNC. (this took me more time using the CNC then it does to make cars using a bandsaw or scroll saw) Yet I could now turn them out pretty fast and perfect on this one design.

I want to see the young men grow in making something using the computer and tools as well as the CNC.
2 years ago we switched our Car block from using dowels and screws for axles to using the nails in a slot. Jury is still out on that. I am still tooling up on those tools to get the cars to run straight. Here is a video on the CNC Ranger Derby Car Build. Even after 31 years I am still learning and making even more mistakes....ha! It's fun though and brings folks out!
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jarm2
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Re: Pine Wood Derby

Post by jarm2 »

Sounds like you have a great plan to teach them how to design on the computer and then take it to the making stage on the CNC. The boys should learn a lot from this process. Thanks for sharing.
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