Pinewood Derby 2012
Pinewood Derby results are in! Congratulations to all winners!
It's Pinewood Derby 2012 time!
Friday, 17 February, Buck Lake Elementary Cafeteria
6:30pm - 7:30pm - Car Weigh-in, Test Runs, Optional Car Check-In
Saturday, 18 February, Buck Lake Elementary Cafeteria
11:15am - Car Check-in Opens. Note, there will be no test runs on race day (Saturday). If you check in on Friday, you do not have to be present until your race time.
11:30am - Opening Ceremony
11:45am - Racing Begins.
11:45am - Tigers
12:15pm - Wolves
1:15 pm - Car Check-in ends.
1:45 pm - Bears
2:30 pm - Webelo Ones and Twos
3:00 pm - Family Races
3:30 pm - Retire the Colors
Wheel Tuning
Here is a resource for making your car as fast as possible... Tuning Wheels and Axles
Car Designs
There will be designs that you can choose from at the cut and sand locations. However, if you would like to custom design a car, I have attached a very rudimentary drawing of the block of wood that you will use. Please forgive my lack of computer graphics skills. Create your design on these rudimentary panels, take them to the cut and sand, then transfer to your block of wood. I also included the Pinewood Derby rules that are found on the Suwannee River Council website.
For those doing Pinewood Derby for the first time, you may want to just choose from the designs that will be at your cut and sand locations. Get one "under your belt" before you go working on custom designs. Also, I was planning to include a few websites that would give some designs for your derby car; however, I just didn't find any that were what I was looking for. So, I'll just suggest that, if you are interested, you can Google "pinewood derby" and you will find a lot of websites dedicated to this. Many of the designs are NOT free.
Also, please be aware that very intricate designs will not be able to be finished at the cut and sand. They don't have the time or equipment to get really detailed. If you want a really detailed, intricate design, you may do a lot of finishing work on this at home. Example: Last year, Jacob had an "engine" on his car. Gary White cut the basic shape, but it went all the way across the top of the car. I then cut it down to the size that Jacob wanted using a Dremel tool at home.
While we want the scouts to do as much work on their cars as possible, the adults should work with the power tools. Scouts that know how to use power tools may use them at home under adult supervision, but at the cut and sand, the hosts will use the saws and do the cutting.
If you don't like my templates, I will also include the size of the block of wood. The length is 7", width is 1 3/4", and the height is 1 1/4". The width should stay the same on the finished car, but the length and height can be shorter.
We have a template available so you can start tracing some ideas: Pinewood Derby Blank Templates
Derby Rules
We will follow the Council's rules for the Derby, which will mean our scouts should have no trouble when they advance to compete at Council. They are located here: Rules and Templates
We Need Help!
If you would like to volunteer to help us run the races, Cut and Sand, or just about anything else, let someone know!
