Pinewood Derby Times Newsletter Volume 9 Issue 10

Pinewood Derby Times
Volume 9, Issue 10
February 10, 2010
In this Edition:

- Editor's Notes

- Feature Article - Google and the Pinewood Derby

- Humor

- Shop Talk - The Right Stuff - Choosing the Best Adhesive

- Product Showcase

- Car Showcase

- Q&A

Editor's Notes

Help - We Need Your Car Photos and Memories We are in need of cars for the Car Showcase, and we are out of pinewood derby memories. Please send your photos and memories and we'll get them published. Thanks.

Craft Wood and Metal We offer basswood and balsa wood, along with our craft metal products at Maximum Hobby.

Basswood is a smooth grained softwood that is great for adding detail to a pine block. For example, we use basswood for the top plate in our Stealth Kit. It can also be used for making fenders, wings, cockpits, etc.

Can We Help? If we can help you in any way with your pinewood derby project, or if you have any feedback regarding this newsletter, please contact us at: info@maximum-velocity.com

Inventory Clearance We have added three decals and NyOil II to our Inventory Clearance Sale.

There you will also find all of the older style BSA wheels, car kits, car plan booklets, and the "Down and Derby" DVD.

Maximum Velocity Car Kits If you are planning a race and are not required to use a specific kit type, our MV Basic Car Kit is just what you need. These attractively priced kits are equipped with:

Quality Block - Unlike the blocks provided by some organizations, our blocks are soft, northwestern pine blocks, cut precisely to 7 inches long, 1-3/4 inches wide, and 1-1/4 inches tall. These dimensions, as well as the axle slots accurately duplicate the dimensions of standard pinewood derby blocks from BSA and PineCar.

Simple Axle Preparation - Don't worry about filing off flaws, or losing hub caps. Our Speed Axles have no burrs or crimp marks, and install without hub caps. With or without polishing, they are ready to go. We supply five, so you have a spare.

Quality Wheels - Forget cheap, out of round wheels. We supply top- quality, PineCar-brand wheels to give great performance.

So, if your organization does not mandate a particular kit type, consider our Maximum Velocity Car Kits.

Feature Article

Google and the Pinewood Derby

I'm sure most of you have at one time or another typed "pinewood derby" into the Google search engine. At the date of this writing, Google reports about 540,000 matches for this search term. Of course, many of these hits reference to pages within a given site, so the actual number of web sites is considerably smaller. For example, typing, "site:maximum-velocity.com" into Google shows 345 of the 540,000 listings are from maximum-velocity.com.

So, how many different pinewood derby sites are in the Google directory? I don't know, but I decided to go though the numerous search results pages to see how many sites would be displayed and to find some interesting sites to share with you. So after much eye strain, here is what I found. I hope you enjoy them.

Number Of Pages
So, how many search results were shown? I found 706 results (71 pages of ten, but only six on the last page). These are not the total entries in the directory, but are the top 710 results for the search criteria (apparently, this is the limit on the number of results Google will display for a particular search).¹

Interesting Sites
In general, the search results can be organized as businesses, tip sites, pack/organization sites, Blogs, and news articles (and one band). I have picked out a few sites and organized them in a way that I hope is more helpful.

Stories
Pinewood derby memories abound on the web. The most popular is the "Gilbert" story, which is contained on literally hundreds of web sites. I don't know if the Gilbert story actually happened, but it is a heartwarming story. If you haven't read it, one version can be found Here

Two other interesting stories are:

My Dad and The Pinewood Derby

This Is Not Your Father's Pinewood Derby

Plans/Photos
Photos of cars, and car templates are also popular on the web. Here are a few interesting sites that you may not have seen:

Step-By-Step Plans for a Humvee

A nifty site for printing full scale templates for various car design: Car Designer

A fascinating video of a person sketching a pinewood derby car with a sketching program (it is over 10 minutes long): Car Sketching

Some fun cars submitted to Boy’s Life Magazine: Boy's Life

Amazing cars made by a design studio for an IDSA conference race. Note that there are four photos, accessed under "Project Imagery". IDSA Conference Car

Repairing a Vintage Car

The famous Compressed Air Car

Videos
I didn't review all the thousands of video clips available on the web, but here are a few that I found interesting:

Not Your Father’s Pinewood Derby Car

Shoe Car

Here is an unusual car that won the IDSA Ultimate Derby Car 2007 competition. You will need to click on the video link on the page. IDSA Derby Car

Supplies
Finally, some pinewood derby supply sites, but not the typical ones:

Rent a Wood Shop to Build Your Car

Beautiful Hand-crafted Car Display Stands

Pinewood Derby Postage Stamps

¹ At the time I made this search, the "South Park" pinewood derby episode was still popular in the directory and accounted for a large number of the results. So, I actually used the search: pinewood derby -"south park"

Humor

In a small, two engine plane there were four people: the pilot, a computer programmer, a Pastor, and a Boy Scout.

Suddenly, the plane started sputtering and shaking. The pilot quickly yelled over the intercom:

"We have just lost one engine, and the other is failing. The plane is going to crash. Unfortunately, there are only three parachutes on the plane. Since I have a wife and three young children, I must live."

So the pilot grabbed a parachute and jumped out.

The computer programmer then quickly spoke up:

"I am one of the world's smartest men, and I have much left to offer the world. I'm too important to die."

So, he reached into the closet, slipped his arms into the straps of the second parachute and jumped.

The Pastor then said to the Boy Scout, "I've lived a long life my son. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. You take the final parachute."

"Don't worry sir," the Boy Scout said. "There are still two parachutes left. When that smart man jumped out, he took my knapsack instead of a parachute!

Shop Talk

The Right Stuff - Choosing the Best Adhesive

White glue, yellow glue, tacky glue, hot glue, Super Glue, epoxy, Gorilla Glue; the list goes on and on. With the wide variety of adhesives available today, it’s no wonder there is confusion as to what is the best adhesive for pinewood derby cars. So today we will take a look at the most common glue types on the market and indicate how they work with pinewood derby cars.

White glue - This is a generic term for glues such as Elmer's Glue- All, School Glue, etc. This type of glue can be used on wood, paper, cloth, etc. White glue is water soluble, so it isn't intended for use when the end product will be exposed to water.

For pinewood derby cars, white glue works fine for gluing wood to wood (such as adding wood accessories) and for repairing chips or cracks in the wood. It can also be used for holding the axles in place. White glue doesn't work well on metal, so don't use it to glue metal accessories or weight to the car.

Yellow glue (Carpenter’s Glue) - Yellow glue is essentially a formulation of white glue that has a higher tack (dries quicker, less clamping time), and is more durable in wet conditions. For pinewood derby cars, it has the same uses as white glue, except that it does hold metal to wood better than white glue.

Tacky Glue - This is a variety of yellow or white glue with a high tack, sold for use with crafts. It has the same uses as white or yellow glue. PineCar offers a version of tacky glue named "Formula Glue". It can be found Here.

Hot Glue - Hot glue comes in sticks which feed into a glue gun. The melted glue can then be used to attach a variety of items. One benefit of hot glue is the very fast dry time (but you have to work fast). A downside is the filaments of glue that are left behind - they can be easily removed, but are an annoyance. Also, a hot glue gun and children don't readily mix, as you can get a nasty burn from the glue or the tip of the gun.

I don't recommend hot glue for attaching wood to wood, but it does work well for gluing weight into pockets or holes.

Epoxy - My favorite glue, epoxy, is a two-part glue that will glue most anything. There are a wide variety of epoxy adhesives available, some intended for metal, some for glass/plastic, and others for general use. I like a general use epoxy with a five minute set time. You can find it Here.

Epoxy can be used for attaching metal accessories to the car and, since it does not shrink when dry, it works well for gluing weight into holes or pockets. It can also be used for gluing wood to wood, but I recommend yellow, white, or tacky glue for that use.

Super Glue - Super Glue is a brand name for cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesive. This glue is very strong, especially when gluing non-porous materials that contain traces of water. It also works well on human skin. Unfortunately, super glue has a low shearing strength and does not work particularly well on wood. So I don't recommend it for pinewood derby use, except when a quick repair is needed at a race.

Gorilla Glue - Gorilla Glue is a brand name for a polyurethane adhesive. While setting, it expands to fill gaps, and tends to work well when attaching wood to wood. However, for fine hobby work the expansion during setting can cause significant issues, so I don't recommend this glue for pinewood derby use.

Product Showcase

Snap-Off Tungsten Plates
$2.00 off

Snap-off Tungsten Plates have score lines to allow you to adjust the size of the plate - just save the removed segments for another car. Snap-off Tungsten Plates work great in the following situations:

Your car is low on weight, and you want to add weight towards the rear of the car without creating holes or pockets.

You want to design a very thin car, which precludes the use of thicker weighting material.

You want to create a car with a very low center of gravity. Since this tungsten plate is generally mounted on the bottom of the car, the center of gravity will be lower than usual.

Each Snap-off Tungsten Plates weighs 1-1/2 ounces, and measures just over 1/16 inch thick, approximately 2-7/8 inches long, and 3/4 inch wide (1.85 mm x 72.7 mm x 19.5 mm). Each plate is scored into one-1/2 ounce section, three-1/4 ounce sections, and two-1/8 ounce sections. The plates can either be screwed or glued to the bottom of the car.

Until February 23, 2010, you can purchase Snap-Off Tungsten Plates for $2.00 off the regular price. To take advantage of this limited time offer, Click Here.

Car Showcase

Dune Buggy: Scott Wheeler

The Cubs in my Pack always like to give me ideas for the next year's "Pace Car" and this was one they gave. It was made after an actual dune buggy that a Cub's father had in his garage. I used a wire clothes hanger and a derby kit to create the car. It ran very fast but was a little tail heavy.

Dragonfire: Richard House

This was our first Pinewood Derby car ever. The car body, accessories, and press-on decals were easy, but the car was pretty fast too, having the 5th fastest combined times in our competitive Pack and won 1st in the Tigers race. The engine/muffler on the back was originally designed as underside weights, but worked nicely to place COG toward the back at 1 1/2 inches from the rear axle. We learned a lot of things to make our next car even better and faster.

Remote Chance: Dick Roussin

This year my grandson Dylan and I decided to sacrifice a little speed for creativity. We found an old DirecTV remote control which was exactly the right width and attached it to the official BSA block. Aerodynamics and center of gravity weren't ideal, but the car placed first in Den and first overall (~50 cars). This was our fourth consecutive year winning the overall title. As in all of the past years, we used Maximum Velocity Max-V-Lube and tungsten cylinders to good advantage.

Share your car with our readers!
Do you have a car you would like to 'show off' to our readers? If so, send us a photo of your car along with a brief description of any special features. Also, please include your full name. If selected, we will include the photo and description in this newsletter.Please e-mail photos to:
info@maximum-velocity.com.

Photos must be sent by e-mail in JPG format (minimum size of 640x480, maximum size of 1280 x 960). Please shoot photos from the front left of the car, similar to the orientation of this car:

Send only one photo per car, unless an additional photo is needed to adequately show a feature. Also, only one car per subscriber per year please. Thanks!

Q&A

We have to build Cub Scout and Awana cars. Since the Awana wheelbase is centered, would it be ok to use the same weight position as on the Cub Scout car?

With any wheelbase, you would like for the car's balance point to be about 1 inch in front of the rear axle. If you set this balance point on the BSA kit (which has the rear axle about one-half inch closer to the end of the block than on the Awana kit), then on the Awana kit the balance point will be less than one inch in front of the rear axle, which could lead to instability.

What is the preferred method for gluing in axles? I previously used hot glue, except last year we went with Elmer's white glue. I was told that if you wet down the wood and use gorilla glue it will not foam and works best, but my past experience is that gorilla glue is messy.

I don't like gorilla glue for the reason you point out.

The strongest glue is epoxy. The only drawback is that it is virtually impossible to remove the axles once they are glued in. If you don't intend to remove them later, then use epoxy.

Otherwise, use a yellow glue like "Tacky Glue" or carpenter's glue. As it dries, it does shrink, so you have to add more. It holds well, but does allow axle removal (grasp the axle head and rotate to break the glue bond).

Have you ever heard of "set back axles" - cutting off some wood behind the rear axle and gluing it to the front of the car to get the weight higher up on the track?

Yes, this is a common technique to get the rear axle further back so that the balance point can be set further back on the car. If allowed in your race, you can generally get some added performance by shifting the wheelbase back. By the way, instead of cutting and gluing the block, you can turn the block over and cut new offset slots, or drill offset holes (if allowed by the rules).

Do You Have Questions that Need Answers? Do you have a pinewood derby-related question? If so, send your question to: info@maximum-velocity.com. We answer all questions by e-mail, but not every question will appear in the Q&A section of the newsletter.

Back Issues

Are you a new subscriber, or have you missed some of the previous newsletters? Don't miss out! All of the issues for Volume 5 through Volume 9 are posted on our web site and can be found using our Newsletter Index.

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Randy Davis, Editor, Pinewood Derby Times
E-Mail: info@maximum-velocity.com

Copyright ©2010, Randy Davis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or place this newsletter on your web site without explicit permission. However, if you like this newsletter we grant permission, and encourage you to e-mail it to a friend.

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