This week was dominated by the Pinewood Derby. This is the last year we have to make 3 cars. THANK GOODNESS. Mosey wasn't in scouts before this year, but last year he still *needed* to make one. :-) Anyway, 3 derby cars is a lot. They turned out really great, though. The boys did most of the body work themselves. I helped with some of the painting finishing touches, and then did the wheel prep. This is the biggest, hardest part of the process. I had the boys help me a little bit, but it's definitely not something they can do on their own at their ages. This is what bugs me about the pinewood derby. If it were just making a fun car and then racing them, that would be fine. But pinewood derby racing is its own industry now, and there are about 1000 websites dedicated to how to make a winning car. So now everyone reads those websites and wants their child's car to be competitive, so now everyone has to do it or else come in last. I don't care that much about the racing, but my boys care, and they definitely would care if they came in last. So I felt like we had to jump in whole-hog with the wheel prep thing.
For those of you not in the know about modern pinewood car racing (and I know you are all dying to know), wheel prep is a difficult, time-consuming, multi-step prices. The first step is filing off the little metal ridge where the nail head meets the shaft (the car's axles are little nails). These ridges are very small and you can only really see them with a magnifying glass (which now comes standard in wheel prep kits). You mount the nail, point side down, into a drill (where the bit normally goes), and then turn it on high while pressing a tiny metal file underneath the head of the nail. Take out the nail, inspect with the magnifying glass, and then repeat until the metal is perfectly smooth. Times 9 nails (only 3 per car since we use a 3-wheel design where only 3 of the wheels actually make contact with the track, reducing friction; the 4th wheel is just for looks).
Next, you sand down the shaft of the nails with progressively finer-grade sand paper. Again, you put the nail in the drill, and then set it on high and apply the sand paper to the nail as it spins. But it's more complicated than it sounds. First, there are 7 grades of sand paper. Yes, seven. You have to cut the sand paper in quarter-inch strips, then each strip has to soak in water for 5 minutes, then you have to mix up this pumice past and put some of that on the sand paper before sanding the nail. You sand with each grade of sand paper for 1 minute each. So each nail takes about 15-20 minutes when you add in the time it takes to get each new piece of sand-paper ready. Times by 9. This is one big benefit of the 3 wheel arrangement, or else that would be times 12. :-)
Then you have to prep the wheels themselves. First you mount the wheel onto the drill using a special attachment, and sand the bottom of the wheels, using 3 grades of sand paper. This, at least, is faster than the axle sanding. 20 seconds per paper, and no soaking or pumice. Then you take the wheel off and cut these little pieces of pipe-cleaner-type-things, apply pumice paste, insert the pipe-cleaner thing into the drill, and then drill out the inside of the wheel, where the axle goes. Again, times all of this by 9.
And THEN you have to actually mount the wheels, which is a PAIN. First you coat each nail with graphite powder. Then you put the wheels on the nail and carefully pound the nails into these tiny little grooves on the underside of the car. They have to go in perfectly straight, and perfectly level. And you can't mess up, because if you do and have to take the nails out of the grooves, the groove itself has been widened, so it won't hold the axle very tightly after that, and also you can damage the nail you so meticulously sanded. Getting the first wheel in is OK, but then it gets trickier because you can't simply lay the car down on its side and pound in the nails. Once you have on wheel in, you don't want to put any pressure or impact on that wheel, so you have to mount it on wooden blocks and very carefully pound the nails in. And then you test it out, hoping and praying that the alignment is good, because if it's not, oh well, too bad. All of this times 9.
Then you mount the fake 4th wheel by drilling a small hole above the axle groove so the fourth wheel sits at a higher level than the others.
And THEN you have to get the car weighted properly. Each car must be no more than 5 ounces (and this is exact-- 5.01 will disqualify the car). But you want it to be as close to 5 oz. as possible, because the heavier the car, the more momentum and the faster it goes. Some people drill out holes in the under side of the car, and fill them with lead weights. This is supposedly best, but too much work for me. So we use these little weights that come in strips that you can break apart into smaller segments to get exactly the right weight, using our electronic kitchen food scale. I have no idea how you are supposed to do this if you don't have an electronic food scale. :-) The weights have to be glued (don't forget about the weight of the glue!) onto the underside of the car. But you have to place the weights exactkt right-- you want the center of gravity of the car to be toward the back. There is controversy online over exactly how far back to put the weights. It's all very complex.
FINALLY, you have to get your boy to spin the wheels a whole bunch (different websites recommend an hour or more of spinning-- we didn't come close to that). But don't roll the car on the ground or actually have any fun with it before the race! You might pick up little pieces of grit that will introduce friction into the system! If you've done a good job, each wheel should spin on it's own for 20-30 seconds. We never got ours spinning more than 15 seconds, so we could never begin to be competitive in bigger races. :-)
And THAT is how you make the derby car.
If you have precision tools, it's even more involved-- drilling out new axle gooves at precisely 90 degrees and at exactly even depths. Correcting alignment issues to the tiniest fraction of inches. It's all ridiculous. 8-10 year old boys CANNOT do it. It take muscle, dexterity, hand-eye-coordination, and a huge amount of patience. So the contest becomes over which parent had the most time to prep the wheels for their kid's car. Which I think is pretty contrary to the original spirit of the pinewood derby, and a pretty ridiculous contest.
Anyway, next year we only have to make ONE CAR!!! YAY!!
The race was Thursday night. We took the entire day off school to get the cars finished (ridiculous). When we got to the church and did test runs down the track, I discovered that I had mounted the fake 4th wheel too high on two of the cars. It has to be low enough to keep the car on the track (the cars all run straddling a raised wooden track to keep it in its lane), but not so low that it comes in contact with the track. But I had put the wheels in too high on Brigham's and Mosey's. Luckily someone brought a drill and drill bits so I was able to perform quick surgery before the race. Otherwise all those hours of wheel prep would have been for nothing, and I would have been very frustrated!! As it turned out, the boys did well in the race. Brigham came in 2nd and Joseph and Mosey tied for 3rd. And there were no tears and everyone was happy, so I count that a huge success. The little boy who came in first hadn't brought any graphite (which you are supposed to apply to the wheel hubs and axles between each race using this graphite injector thingamajig-- another thing the boys can't do by themselves), so he brought his to me to be graphited between each race. I could have probably sabotaged the race for him and faked putting graphite on his wheels. And I'm sure there are some parents (not in our pack) who probably would have done that. But I didn't. :-)
So that is the very long saga of the pinewood derby and why I am so glad it is done for another year, and that next year I only have to do one!
What else happened this week?
- We went to the orthodontist where we got the plan for Joseph and Brigham. Braces and headgear for the both of them (they inherited Ben's narrower lower jaw), but not for a while yet.
- I had what might be my lowest of the low cooking weeks. Monday was refried beans and cheese on stale tortillas. Tuesday was Kraft macaroni and cheese. Wednesday was fish sticks from a bag. Thursday was taco bell on the way home from the pinewood derby, at 9:00 at night. Friday night was frozen pizza. And last night was peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Tonight I tried to make it up to them by making a chicken noodle casserole which they said was good.
- Finished a GREAT book called "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton. Highly recommended.
- Joseph went to his first archery lesson on Saturday morning. He loved it and did really well! I think he's found his new thing. He wants to buy a bow and practice in our backyard, but I'm not so sure that's a great idea. :-)
- I finally got a smart phone-- the Droid Razr. Mosey loves it. He's spent about 10 times more time on it than I have over the past 2 days. My feelings remained mixed for that exact reason. Something else I have to police my boys over.
- I got a new church calling. I'm now a den leader for the wolves and bears. This will be fun-- it's the den Mosey is in. I will be working with another lady who is in our homeschool art group and has energy for about 10 people. But I am really sad about not getting to teach my primary class anymore. I think I'm really good at teaching that age group. They are fun and challenging, and I feel like I can really teach them. I asked Brother Chase if I could do both callings, but no dice. :-( So, back to Relief Society where I will now have to be stressed over if anyone will sit next to me. My life is hard. :-)
Have a great week everybody!
Love,
Gabrielle
1 comment:
Pinewood Derbies have sure changed since the days I was helping my Cub Scout sons... and am I ever glad I don't have to compete today! You are such a good mother, Gabrielle!! And fish sticks and macaroni and cheese are perfectly respectable dinners, in my book :)
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