Thanks so much for this video. My son and I watched the video and used the principles to build his pinewood derby car. First year in Scouts and he won his pack’s pinewood derby!
A lot of great tips here! Just be warned that most pinewood derby races do not allow store bought or modified wheels. During inspections this is the one "cheat" that I have found most often. Most rules allow a light sanding and polishing of the outer surface and hub but no lathe work or removal of material. Thanks for the video!
Me and my son will be building a pinewood derby car soon! Ill be referencing this video for sure. Our rules say we must have all 4 wheels touching, and no bent or angled axels.
One of the most important things that I like the best about this video is the father and son doing it together. I’m in the process of making my first one with my daughter, never did it before, but I will try to do some of the ideals you gave. It would be nice if I end up getting a kit from you make the next one easier.
We just watched your video and are so excited to order our sets and build & race our family cars together . Before your video we didn’t know how to start Your tips will increase our Chances of winning. Using powdered graphite and the angled axels along with the clear explanations helps a lot! Thank you both, father son is the best!
Son and I swept the races today, both the family class and the scout class. The CG itself is paramount . You want the actual CG to be about an inch in front of the rear axle, which means your weights may be behind that line. Putting the weights one inch in front of the axle, your CG may in fact be farther ahead than that. Experiment by moving weights around first before making anything final. Rail riding. Negative camber in the rear, positive camber in the front, 1" of left steering over 4' of track. We accomplished this by bending our axles. It's simple but the tools arent' cheap. The speed axles, some of them are great, some of them are a waste of money. Our rules said all parts had to come out of the box, so we just did all the prep ourselves. Sand progressively to 5000 grit then flitz polish and then graphite.
I contoured my son's car to have a smooth teardrop shape, similar to a Porsche 944. I did the nail polishing, wheel outside edge smoothing, and the graphite. I painted it with car paint and clear coat. His car won 1st place back in 1996.
You completely shaped "his car", you polished everything on "his car", you lubricated everything on "his car" and you painted "his car". You sure it's his car?
1st year with my 5yr old. As a Den leader, I have to make sure to be a good sport while trying to make my son have fun winning. Bought the offset axle block and going to hydro dip the car into Red White and Blue enamel spray paint. Should be great. Then wheels on. Weight is balanced on top/inside with wood putty and wood glue. Our rules in Ohio, must show axles. So means I have to cut deeper. Wish me luck.
You actually want to put positive camber on the non-raised front wheel. It's also important to make sure that the car has the right amount of drift in the right direction. You want it to move about 3-4" in the direction opposite the non-raised wheel for about 4' of forward travel on the car.
My district doesn’t allow using any slot other than the stock axle channel and we have to ride on 4 wheels. I reduce the weight of the wheels by shaving the interior of the riding surface. Get a mandrel bit and a tool that can gouge/shave the inside of the wheels. I’ve never shaved the hub. Can’t shave the interior or exterior of the wheel face, or the ride surface. I also feel when you apply graphite, you should spin the wheels and apply more and spin some more. Fill your micro imperfections with the stuff and flatten out the particles for maximum slip.
Really cool video. Excellent tips. Being as close to or spot on 5.0 Oz is the only one I can use since we are racing in Cub Scouts and other cheats are violations of the rules (that our unit has
Changing the camber on the front wheel so it rides on the outside. Using a 1.5 degree bend and turning the wheel slightly toward the rail will improve speed and help the car not to shimmy. The rear wheels should be 2.5 degrees instead of .25. Having more weight on top of the car at the balance point will give you more potential energy.
Nice video! There's some good info in there for people to get started. About your front wheel that does the steering to the rail. Try putting the camber to positive. This helps make the friction against the rail more of a rolling friction. It also will roll over an imperfection in the track easier. When you put a positive camber on the front steering wheel you should sand off 1/16 where the hub hits the body. Doing this will keep the back wheels from rubbing the rail. Speaking of dragging a rear wheel. I noticed on the painted car it seems to be dogtracking the back right wheel really close if not touching the rail. Try taking the car down to the transition and let it slow roll to take notice of the wheel position. Again, thanks for the video. I hope these tips help you at a little bit. Ryan
Yes those were all great tips! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and explaining what you mean in detail made allot of sense to me. KJ and I will have to try your ideas out!
@@doityourselfbri For more in-depth info that can help speed up your cars I recommend people go to the following two places: Pinewoodderbyonline.com 5kidsracing.webs.com/ People can learn alot from these two websites. There are hints and tricks for the beginners all the way into starting to league race. Enjoy.
Technically having 1 wheel off the ground doesn’t reduce friction (because there’s just more weight on the other wheels) but it does reduce the moment of inertia by 25% as there’s less loss to rotational forces
LOL, I learned these tricks 20 years ago off the internet and both my sons won 1st and 2nd in the pack. One other thing you can do is taper the head of axle so it minimizes friction against the wheel.
Thank you for posting. My son has his first pinewood derby competition at the end of the month. I liked how you talked about how to smooth the axles for extra speed
Every derby I've been involved with said you had to use the axles and wheels you were given, and that you couldn't remove any of the wheel material. It also said you had to have four wheels, but it didn't say they had to be touching the ground. We made ours by bending one front axle up enough to barely take the wheel off the ground. I worry that if we drill a hole to obviously raise the wheel they will disqualify it.
The fastest graphite is by far made by derbydad4hire, after putting 1 layer on after using other brands you can hear a difference. A quite wheel is a fast wheel. I read some of the tips below. Yes you DO NOT bend the rear axles but drill holes at 2.5 to 3 degrees. Next as stated below you bend 1 of the front axles so the car will drift into the guide rail. You want to use sand axles up to 3000 grit found at any auto part store, then polish them with a metal polish. SPEED TIP. spray your axles with lemon pledge and let dry for 24 hours then put the wheels on. If you dont let the pledge dry your graphite will turn into a mud like chunks in the wheels and you car will not make it down the track. Wheels what most people dont touch, you want to polish the inside of the wheels with a plastic polish. (whiting toothpaste is a easy cheep alternative) . use a q-tip or a pipe cleaner in the drill you might have to cut a layer to 2 off with a razor blade to get it to fit in the wheel. I would do 2 or 3 iterations of this till it shines up.
I'm getting ready to start a derby car with my grandson and the rules now is the width of the whole tire must make contact with the track. However, 3 wheels must make contact. What is your suggestion on this to increase speed?
Look that was great advice… All I Gotta say is, I would love to get that free modified kit. My wife has a little derby thing coming up at her business… She wants to win this thing. It’s a corporate thing, so I don’t mind modifying the car for her.
My son is in his first year of scouting and I have all ready finished my scouting 26+ years ago. I found it very exciting to see all the different changes your applying to your car to make it fast. I’m only half way threw the video and thought I’d add this message on here quick. Do you feel there is a difference in the quality of paint or doesn’t that matter?
Question our pack inspects/confiscates to ensure All wheels are flat and no modification are made after. by changing the alignment does it put the car of balance?
The 3-Wheel technique is a good technique but not because of reduced friction. Whatever friction you lose by removing the 4th wheel from the equation is spread out over the remaining 3 wheels due to the fact that these 3 wheels are sharing the weight of the car that the 4th wheel would have carried. Removing 1 wheel from the equation means that you have 1 less wheel to get up to speed. Spinning 4 wheels up to speed uses energy. You reduce that energy expenditure by 25% when removing the 4th wheel. This 25% is significant.
I’m glad you’re not only teaching your son how to build a fast derby car but that you’re also teaching him that having fun during the build is just as important as the win.
Keep in mind. There are rules to follow to keep a car legal. 4 wheels must touch the track at all time. Wheels cannot be angled. You can’t change the location of the axle. It must be in the precut lines provided. If your pack doesn’t follow the rules. It’s ok. But if they do. Your car can be disqualified. Especially at district races. Check with your pinewood derby chairman about the rules before making your car.
Yes thank you for pointing those out, our only pack rules were car length and weight. So yeah definitely a good idea to check with your pack rules before building..
This was a great video. I wish I would’ve seen it a week ago. Our big race is this Friday night. Could you tell me how you know how to get the 2.5 degree bend? Like how do you know it’s got the correct bend in it? I thought about just trying to lay it on the concrete and giving it a few taps with a hammer but I like how you did it in a Vice. But then how do you measure the bend?
@@marchopkin4742 shoot I just saw this today.. but we won 1st place in his pack. And we almost won 1st place out of all the packs. I don’t totally get how we lost because during the championship race we won 2 out of three and another little guy and his dad won instead. He won the other races leading up to the championship race but when it came to the championship race we definitely won two of the races and they only won one. So they got that trophy. So we took home 1st place medal in our pack and then the best in show trophy, which is a stand and platform for our son to keep his car on display. It was a totally fun night and can’t wait til next year. Do you understand how the scoring works? I didn’t want to ask last night. I didn’t want to seem like some sort of ass that’s ungrateful. We really did have fun.
I don't know all the rules, but can you move the rear wheels back for a longer wheelbase? Do they weigh the car after the race or before?? Winning isn't most important, the most important thing is working together and making friends at the track.
I Love this video!! I’m a 60-year old Grandma who works in children’s ministry and this year I’m entering my own car!! Thanks for the Great Tips!!
When does the kid get to participate in the build?
When he has children!
Been that way since the 60s
Lol the kids a prop.
The kid is the dad’s license to race his pinewood derby car
My dad would hand me a rough version of our final design, we would sand it down and paint it together then I would handle the stickers and wheels.
Thanks so much for this video. My son and I watched the video and used the principles to build his pinewood derby car. First year in Scouts and he won his pack’s pinewood derby!
A lot of great tips here! Just be warned that most pinewood derby races do not allow store bought or modified wheels. During inspections this is the one "cheat" that I have found most often. Most rules allow a light sanding and polishing of the outer surface and hub but no lathe work or removal of material. Thanks for the video!
Great tips. I like that you demo the speed improvements for each change.
The tips were perfect and easy for us to understand and they are really helpful
Great! I'm glad to help!
Excited about the detail in this video! Me and my daughter are in scouts for the first year and I want her to go as far as she can with her car!
Very informative for my grandson Jude!!
Me and my son will be building a pinewood derby car soon! Ill be referencing this video for sure. Our rules say we must have all 4 wheels touching, and no bent or angled axels.
One of the most important things that I like the best about this video is the father and son doing it together. I’m in the process of making my first one with my daughter, never did it before, but I will try to do some of the ideals you gave. It would be nice if I end up getting a kit from you make the next one easier.
We just watched your video and are so excited to order our sets and build & race our family cars together . Before your video we didn’t know how to start Your tips will increase our Chances of winning. Using powdered graphite and the angled axels along with the clear explanations helps a lot! Thank you both, father son is the best!
Son and I swept the races today, both the family class and the scout class.
The CG itself is paramount . You want the actual CG to be about an inch in front of the rear axle, which means your weights may be behind that line. Putting the weights one inch in front of the axle, your CG may in fact be farther ahead than that. Experiment by moving weights around first before making anything final.
Rail riding. Negative camber in the rear, positive camber in the front, 1" of left steering over 4' of track. We accomplished this by bending our axles. It's simple but the tools arent' cheap.
The speed axles, some of them are great, some of them are a waste of money. Our rules said all parts had to come out of the box, so we just did all the prep ourselves. Sand progressively to 5000 grit then flitz polish and then graphite.
I loved all the steps and all tips you gave..i am currently helping my son with his pinewood derby car this helped alot
Thanks have fun building that car!
Loved the simplicity! So many others are a 10 hr process!!!!
Thanks!
I liked your tip about deburring the axels. Game changer!!
Great advise. My son and I are new to pinewood derby and are using the tips. Keep up the good work.
I contoured my son's car to have a smooth teardrop shape, similar to a Porsche 944. I did the nail polishing, wheel outside edge smoothing, and the graphite. I painted it with car paint and clear coat. His car won 1st place back in 1996.
You completely shaped "his car", you polished everything on "his car", you lubricated everything on "his car" and you painted "his car". You sure it's his car?
The wheel angles helped me the most. I'm going to polish the nails and use grphite this year.
My nice is in the girl scouts ask me to help her built a derby car. Din 't know the first thing to do. You video help a lot. Thanks you.
Great basic tips and how they apply to physical.
Great quality time with children .
This will be our second year pinewood derby car guide. Should see great improvement with shifting the weight back! Thanks!
Nice! Good luck 👍🏻
Technical in detail options to have the fastest Derby Car. First timer here building for my son so this information will help out lots.
Thanks!
1st year with my 5yr old. As a Den leader, I have to make sure to be a good sport while trying to make my son have fun winning. Bought the offset axle block and going to hydro dip the car into Red White and Blue enamel spray paint. Should be great. Then wheels on. Weight is balanced on top/inside with wood putty and wood glue. Our rules in Ohio, must show axles. So means I have to cut deeper.
Wish me luck.
Good luck!
You actually want to put positive camber on the non-raised front wheel. It's also important to make sure that the car has the right amount of drift in the right direction. You want it to move about 3-4" in the direction opposite the non-raised wheel for about 4' of forward travel on the car.
My district doesn’t allow using any slot other than the stock axle channel and we have to ride on 4 wheels. I reduce the weight of the wheels by shaving the interior of the riding surface. Get a mandrel bit and a tool that can gouge/shave the inside of the wheels. I’ve never shaved the hub. Can’t shave the interior or exterior of the wheel face, or the ride surface. I also feel when you apply graphite, you should spin the wheels and apply more and spin some more. Fill your micro imperfections with the stuff and flatten out the particles for maximum slip.
Nice video, but I would definitely check your local derby rules, two of these tips are illegal in my area.
Really cool video. Excellent tips. Being as close to or spot on 5.0 Oz is the only one I can use since we are racing in Cub Scouts and other cheats are violations of the rules (that our unit has
Thanks for the Video guys I had no idea about the axle tool.
Thanks!
Super informative. This is my son’s first pinewood derby. Thanks
1st time dad working on a car with my 7yr old. Looking for tips and will def. be using intell. on this vid. Thanks.
Cool stuff my son and I have polished the axels that alone gave us the win
To me it's all about spending time with your child building the car whether it wins or loses is not so much the issue. Good luck to all of you!
Very True!
Changing the camber on the front wheel so it rides on the outside. Using a 1.5 degree bend and turning the wheel slightly toward the rail will improve speed and help the car not to shimmy. The rear wheels should be 2.5 degrees instead of .25. Having more weight on top of the car at the balance point will give you more potential energy.
Great Video, the cars you made were very nice. Always make sure to check your local BSA rules!
I like the green cars design in this video. Great tips!
Great down to earth tips with out all of the science that a chld is not likely to understand. Very COOL.
Nice video! There's some good info in there for people to get started.
About your front wheel that does the steering to the rail. Try putting the camber to positive. This helps make the friction against the rail more of a rolling friction. It also will roll over an imperfection in the track easier. When you put a positive camber on the front steering wheel you should sand off 1/16 where the hub hits the body. Doing this will keep the back wheels from rubbing the rail. Speaking of dragging a rear wheel.
I noticed on the painted car it seems to be dogtracking the back right wheel really close if not touching the rail. Try taking the car down to the transition and let it slow roll to take notice of the wheel position.
Again, thanks for the video. I hope these tips help you at a little bit.
Ryan
Yes those were all great tips! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and explaining what you mean in detail made allot of sense to me. KJ and I will have to try your ideas out!
@@doityourselfbri
For more in-depth info that can help speed up your cars I recommend people go to the following two places:
Pinewoodderbyonline.com
5kidsracing.webs.com/
People can learn alot from these two websites. There are hints and tricks for the beginners all the way into starting to league race. Enjoy.
Technically having 1 wheel off the ground doesn’t reduce friction (because there’s just more weight on the other wheels) but it does reduce the moment of inertia by 25% as there’s less loss to rotational forces
Love the smile on the kid 😍
LOL, I learned these tricks 20 years ago off the internet and both my sons won 1st and 2nd in the pack. One other thing you can do is taper the head of axle so it minimizes friction against the wheel.
Great tips thanks for all the information very helpful
Thank you for posting. My son has his first pinewood derby competition at the end of the month. I liked how you talked about how to smooth the axles for extra speed
Update??
@@monke4297 he came in 1st for his den, 2nd overall amongst all dens
@@charleshenley8439 Nice
@@charleshenley8439 I just made a pine wood derby car to race in a few weeks. I hope his tips work!
@@monke4297 it totally will! Good luck!
i'm in school have to build a solar derby car so this helped on one side time to do the solar part of this
Watched your video and took second and fifth place the first year ever doing pinewood derby
Great vid. Can't wait to start building mine
Just got my son an I 2 kits can't wait
i love it because I let(made) my mom buy these good tools!!
Nice!
the fine tuning before race day. Smart
I liked how you put the granite glue thanks
nice tips I am building my derby car right now.
Nice!
Thank you for all the tips have a blessed day
Thanks! You too
I won using some of your pointers - wasn’t expecting or trying to win but was surprised how fast my car was
If you apply most of the tips correctly, you’ll almost always blow half the cars away and be competitive.
Every derby I've been involved with said you had to use the axles and wheels you were given, and that you couldn't remove any of the wheel material. It also said you had to have four wheels, but it didn't say they had to be touching the ground. We made ours by bending one front axle up enough to barely take the wheel off the ground. I worry that if we drill a hole to obviously raise the wheel they will disqualify it.
Awesome vid! i really like how you quantified the time reductions for the key tips you recommended.
The fastest graphite is by far made by derbydad4hire, after putting 1 layer on after using other brands you can hear a difference. A quite wheel is a fast wheel. I read some of the tips below. Yes you DO NOT bend the rear axles but drill holes at 2.5 to 3 degrees. Next as stated below you bend 1 of the front axles so the car will drift into the guide rail. You want to use sand axles up to 3000 grit found at any auto part store, then polish them with a metal polish. SPEED TIP. spray your axles with lemon pledge and let dry for 24 hours then put the wheels on. If you dont let the pledge dry your graphite will turn into a mud like chunks in the wheels and you car will not make it down the track. Wheels what most people dont touch, you want to polish the inside of the wheels with a plastic polish. (whiting toothpaste is a easy cheep alternative) . use a q-tip or a pipe cleaner in the drill you might have to cut a layer to 2 off with a razor blade to get it to fit in the wheel. I would do 2 or 3 iterations of this till it shines up.
the jib you recommended, states not to angle the front wheel based on their instructions. What made you decide to angle the front wheel?
great video. I'm about to start building my first car. All this tis are going to come handy.
Great advice, thank you so much.
Great video!! These tips helped me win races against my friends!!
you guys are cool at explaining tips
Cool vid man! I'm working on my car now. I made my own custom lead weights and polished the axles. Hope it works out!
Nice good luck on the build!
Thanks!
Can the axles be one piece for front and back?
I'm getting ready to start a derby car with my grandson and the rules now is the width of the whole tire must make contact with the track. However, 3 wheels must make contact. What is your suggestion on this to increase speed?
Look that was great advice… All I Gotta say is, I would love to get that free modified kit. My wife has a little derby thing coming up at her business… She wants to win this thing. It’s a corporate thing, so I don’t mind modifying the car for her.
STOP
i love all the steps and cool tips you gave and i look fored to watching this video on my pine wood derby
I like that you said to have one wheel off the track
Great video! Thanks for all the helpful tips and links! This is my son's second derby and am hoping these tips help!
Great tips! Will try to apply them to our cars.
This is channel and video in particular is so underrated
My son is in his first year of scouting and I have all ready finished my scouting 26+ years ago. I found it very exciting to see all the different changes your applying to your car to make it fast. I’m only half way threw the video and thought I’d add this message on here quick. Do you feel there is a difference in the quality of paint or doesn’t that matter?
Nice tip riding on 3 wheels
Heck yeah!
awsome3 video guys.thanks for the tire tip
Question our pack inspects/confiscates to ensure All wheels are flat and no modification are made after. by changing the alignment does it put the car of balance?
Great video!! 3 wheels is the way to go
Thanks!! Yes it's a great concept!
Love the axle alignment tool.
Where did you get your test track or did you build it ?
A friend of mine is a carpenter for our church, he built it.. And they let me borrow it..
You Will help me so much so thank you for the tip
The 3-Wheel technique is a good technique but not because of reduced friction. Whatever friction you lose by removing the 4th wheel from the equation is spread out over the remaining 3 wheels due to the fact that these 3 wheels are sharing the weight of the car that the 4th wheel would have carried.
Removing 1 wheel from the equation means that you have 1 less wheel to get up to speed. Spinning 4 wheels up to speed uses energy. You reduce that energy expenditure by 25% when removing the 4th wheel. This 25% is significant.
I’m glad you’re not only teaching your son how to build a fast derby car but that you’re also teaching him that having fun during the build is just as important as the win.
I loved the ramp
very interesting how to axle and wheel install to go faster
4:30 ur son is trying to keep a smile and prob just wants to leave. Also love a.l the tips
Are these all legal modifications?
wheres the linkkkkk
Does putting the block of wood in the oven help
how is the epoxy floor holding up ?
How much weights did you add ?
I liked the weights.
I like how you have a lot of fast cars
Cool vid and activity with ur kid. So, did you redrill new holes for the nail axle or did you use the pre-cut slots? That part was not clear.
I think he made new holes
The green car had an extended wheel base that also makes an improvement. Most BSA PWD's do not allow that.
Oh i didn't know that thanks!
Keep in mind. There are rules to follow to keep a car legal. 4 wheels must touch the track at all time. Wheels cannot be angled. You can’t change the location of the axle. It must be in the precut lines provided.
If your pack doesn’t follow the rules. It’s ok. But if they do. Your car can be disqualified. Especially at district races. Check with your pinewood derby chairman about the rules before making your car.
You also cannot modify the nail head. No bevel. No slots.
But like I said. Check your packs rules.
Yes thank you for pointing those out, our only pack rules were car length and weight. So yeah definitely a good idea to check with your pack rules before building..
Many Pack Rules are different. We can run 3 Wheels at Pack and District. No modified Wheel Bases though.
Great tips and explained very well!
This was a great video. I wish I would’ve seen it a week ago. Our big race is this Friday night.
Could you tell me how you know how to get the 2.5 degree bend? Like how do you know it’s got the correct bend in it? I thought about just trying to lay it on the concrete and giving it a few taps with a hammer but I like how you did it in a Vice. But then how do you measure the bend?
Don't bend the axle, drill the hole at 2.5°
@@marchopkin4742 shoot I just saw this today.. but we won 1st place in his pack. And we almost won 1st place out of all the packs.
I don’t totally get how we lost because during the championship race we won 2 out of three and another little guy and his dad won instead. He won the other races leading up to the championship race but when it came to the championship race we definitely won two of the races and they only won one. So they got that trophy.
So we took home 1st place medal in our pack and then the best in show trophy, which is a stand and platform for our son to keep his car on display. It was a totally fun night and can’t wait til next year.
Do you understand how the scoring works? I didn’t want to ask last night. I didn’t want to seem like some sort of ass that’s ungrateful.
We really did have fun.
Great video. I wonder if you gain much speed from adding a graphite coding to the wheels?
Did you build the track yourself?
Where can i get the axle aliner?
i liked the part of how to make the axles better
I don't know all the rules, but can you move the rear wheels back for a longer wheelbase?
Do they weigh the car after the race or before??
Winning isn't most important, the most important thing is working together and making friends at the track.
coolest video ever
Thanks!
Official rules say you must use the the cut slots for the axles. Can’t drill the holes for the wheels using the aligner.