And you thought pellets were just good for squirrels...

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ztirffritz

ztirffritz

Member
May 19, 2015
1,561
49
WA, United States
I spent the weekend working with my son on his Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts. We needed to get his car up to weight, so a couple of 81gr .357 Pellets were the perfect solution.



I turned the wheels down using a drill and my pocket knife so that there's just a small strip of plastic for less rolling resistance.


I started with some slugs from airgunsandammo.com but they were too heavy. 


The JSB pellets ended up being just about perfect.




Paint was baked on in the toaster oven:


Almost 5oz on the dot


The finished product:
 
Very cool!!!!! This is a special time together with your son! Brings back a lot of memories. My son and I made 4 cars and finally won the pack on our fourth attempt with our rendition of Speed Racer! 
Thanks for sharing,

Doc

PS- he's now 18 and about a head taller than me!

[url="http://i.imgur.com/z21Kuqa.jpg"][img]http://i.imgur.com/z21Kuqa.jpg[/img][/url]
 
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Way Cool! 20 years ago the day before my son's first race my wife handed me the box and said "oh, the're going to race these little cars tomorrow." I almost came unglued as I had built pinewood derby cars when I was in cub scouts. Needless to say we didn't do to good that year. 2 years later we finished 3rd out of 50 cars. My son still has all the cars. What a blast! He just turned 28 and is a great shot when he goes shooting so we get to enjoy that together once in a while.
 
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LOOKS GREAT!!! If you move the weight back just in front of the rear tires, it'll take weight off the front tires reducing drag and keep the weight on the hill as long as possible making your car faster on the flat. If the rules will allow you to make the wheel base longer, do. It to will keep the weight on the hill longer making it like you got more hill then the other cars. Rear wheels start higher, staying on the hill longer and building more speed. 2nd the car will track straighter with the longer wheel base, like a top fuel funny car it takes 40 Akers to a 18 wheeler. Your wheels look good, but you'll want to but a taper to the inside. The inside edge of the tire needs to largest the area, you want the center of the bearing to match the ridge you make on the wheel. This will spread the load over the nail evenly so doen't cause drag tipping the wheel from the load. I'm not a big fan of 3 wheeler with the 4th wheel stop if it should touch on the guide or track, remember it's stopped it have to start rolling, that's drag. Make the car flat and straight use a square to true the nails. If the rules allow use brass tubbing to hold the nails straight and place a small flat washer between the car and wheel with grafite worked in. There's a small burr next to the head of the nail file it off. Round the head edge so it don't cut into the wheel. You can polish the nail by putting the nail in you drill with some green scotch bright pad ( the pad you wife clean the pots and pans with) and tooth paste. Good luck have fun, Monte 
 
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Pinewood cars were a lot of fun for my son and me. We competed in the design division of Royal Ambassadors back in the day. The car had to be from one solid piece of wood with nothing added but paint or lead. We won state for Georgia several years. Great memories. Check out this album of our cars. The Hershey bar was a racer, hence the lead beneath.
http://imgur.com/a/IKR4O
 
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