Pinewood Derby Car Stand

So a few months back I was toying with the idea of building a Pinewood Derby Display Shelf.  My thinking was that it should hold a car for each year of the Cub Scout Experience.  I looked all over online and finally found something that I really liked, the problem was the cost, at $30 each it just wasn't a feasible den project, plus they seemed to no longer be available.

One of the dens in our pack builds an individual stand each year for that year's car, and that's great, but who has space for 5 stands, I wanted something that could hold all 5 cars either sitting on a dresser or hanging on the wall.  I also wanted a project that they'd do as Tigers or Wolves so they'd have empty shelves they were eager to fill, a project that can double as a retention tool seemed like a good idea.  As a child lays in bed contemplating if they want to continue on in scouting I want those empty shelves to remind them they still have more cars to build.

Below is the prototype I made up with some scraps I had lying around my makeshift shop.  It was only 3 cars high but it allowed me to come up with some general dimensions to create my design.

So I figured out my ideal dimensions, and then spent a few hours on-line and in-store at the local home centers deciding on what materials would work best at the lowest cost and developing my materials list for screws, paint, etc.  I need materials for 9 finished projects.  The cost per project worked out to be just under $10.

What I ended up with were four 8' long kiln dried 2x4's and two 2'x4' sheets of 1/2" MDF.  If I were making any more than 10 it would pay to get a full 4'x8' sheet but that would have required using the truck and moving the saw outside to rip down, so I'm glad I only needed 9.

The MDF sheets were cut down to 9 1/2" wide by 24" high pieces as the back panel.

The 2x4's were cut to 7 1/2" long blocks.

I then cut 1/4" off the side of each block to square them up. The scrap makes for good fire starter.

I then cut a little more off the other side to make them 2 3/4" wide.

   

Once the sides were squared up it was time to cut them to height, I wanted them to be 1 1/4" high to account for the 1/2" notch and still have 3/4" of material to fasten to.  This whole thing could have been done using 3/4" pieces and fastening 1/2" thick strips to the top.  I'm not sure which method would have ended up being easier, one is more cutting, one is more assembly.

I ran each piece through the saw 4 times with the fence at 1/4" and the blade height at 1/4" to create a notch for the wheels.

Now that all 360 cuts had been made, I then sanded each side, especially the ends.

Now that I had all of the shelves cut I made up the template for the back panel.  There is a hole at the top to allow it to be mounted on the wall, there are 3 holes to attach each shelf, and the top corners were dog eared for aesthetics.  Once the template was made up I gang drilled the back panels on the drill press for the 144 holes.

I made up and positioned a makeshift fence for the drill press to drill pilot holes in each shelf.  This will aid in lining everything up when the boys assemble them.  The fence kept the holes centered top to bottom on each shelf.

  

Once these 135 holes were drilled the parts were ready for hand sanding and painting.

The back panels were painted first.

Then the bottom shelf (Tiger).

The next shelf (Wolf).

  

The middle shelf (Bear).

The WEBLOS shelf, I did it as the pants of the uniform, or if you do one shelf red it could be the green in the Weblos Colors.

I did the AOL shelf in Khaki like the uniform shirt but you could make this the red shelf of you wanted to do the Weblos Colors.

Everything painted and curing before assembly of the example.

There are the screws we'll be using, they're long enough to grab but not so long that it takes the boys forever to install them.  They're a T-20 drive so I had to gather up all my universal screwdrivers and torx bits, but they'll be a lot less slippage than trying to use philips head screws, they also have a type 17 point so they'll go in easy, especially with the pilot holes I drilled already.

This is the back of the assembled unit with the screws installed, they recess into the MDF easily enough for a nice smooth back when it's done.

Here are some shots of it assembled with some of the cars that I've made on it.  The sticker of the pack crest I had printed by Sticker Mule in anticipation of doing this project.  The top point covers the hole I drilled for hanging it on the wall, but you can easily poke a screw through the sticker if you want to mount it.

  

Stanchions and Plastic Chain

So last year at our Pinewood Derby, and then at our Blue and Gold, and then at the Mall Show, I kept wanting to come up with some better means of crowd control than cones and rope because while they did work to an extent, they were very easy to knock over or push out of the way.  Plus they weren't Cub Scout themed.  This is what I came up with, and will be building more of.

The finished product.

 I had decided on 6mm yellow plastic chain, as it's highly visible and relatively light. The next step was to design the stanchions.  Originally I wanted to utilize PVC pipe with a threaded flange so that they could be broken down for storage but that was going to get expensive.  We could have bought the ready made plastic stanchions for the same price it would cost to construct them.

Then I stumbled upon these 2x3 balusters at Home Depot and they were just the right size.  I still wanted them to be able to be broken down and considered utilizing hanger bolts and wing nuts to attach them to the MDF bases I had made, however I was running out of time and using what I had on hand won out over tracking down the right hardware.  I ended up using 5/16" x 4" lag bolts.

The edges of the MDF bases were rounded over with a router, as was the top of the baluster.  Once everything was assembled it was all sprayed blue.  The last step was to attach the chain to the stanchions and for that I ended up going with 1 1/4" white safety cup hooks.  These are the perfect size to hold the chain and offer a certain amount of deterrent from just unhooking it to walk through.

Pinewood Derby Neckerchief Slide Project

So we just had our Pinewood Derby this past weekend, it was postponed a week due to 22" of snow that came down on the original date. Our Blue and Gold Banquet is coming up this coming weekend and we just wrapped up our most recent tiger adventure as a den, so we need something to do this week, we can start a new adventure the following week.

I've had it in my mind for a few weeks now that I wanted to make up custom neckerchief slides as a project, so Saturday night after the Pinewood Derby I was checking out Google Images and stumbled upon a few variations of pinewood derby car neckerchief slides. The ideas was good, however I had a few improvements I wanted to make on the actual execution. The basics for most of the designs I liked were that you find a piece of molding that has a similar profile to a car and cut it into little pieces that you then paint up and decorate, often using black thumb tacks as the wheels, and then attach a piece of pipe to the back of it to make it into a slide.

The molding wasn't hard to find, I actually found something with an egg and dart detail that when I cut it it the right spots gave a neat profile for the vehicle. I went to Home Depot but you should be able to find something similar other places. (Pictured is one of the slices of molding.)

A slice of the molding next to a quarter for size comparison.

Black thumb tacks however turned out to be very difficult to find. As one post had suggested, I wanted two different sizes, it looks more like a race car with a larger wheel in the rear. I was able to get regular size thumbtacks all over, but not in black. After going to four different stores trying to locate large ones I finally went online and found that Joann Fabric and Craft Stores has them, but they are called quilting tacks, and are with quilting supplies. I'd assume that other stores I had been in might have actually had them as well if I was looking with the quilting supplies.  These were actually even bigger than I was looking for, but they will work out well. I then painted them all black so they will look like wheels.  Unless you order stuff in advance this is probably easier than trying to find ones that come in black.a

Tacks before paint.

Tacks after black paint.

The biggest hurdle has been coming up with a way to attach a ring to make it into a neckerchief. The other posts all seemed to use a piece of PVC pipe hot glued to the car in a vertical configuration. I would prefer to leave the car in a horizontal configuration. I also would rather not use hot glue and pipe, I'm concerned it won't hold up to repeated usage. I decided to try using a key ring as the loop. Attaching the key ring to the car though proved to be challenging. I wanted to cut a slot to glue a quarter of the key ring into so I tried using an oscillating saw and a Dremel tool did not have much luck. I picked up a slot cutting router bit that I will attempt to use in the morning and see if that works better.

As it stands now I have one coat of paint on the cars, the second coat will go on after the rings have been glued in.

The cars cut out and an initial coat of spray paint applied.

If all goes well tomorrow morning, then tomorrow night the boys will be attaching the thumbtacks and decorating their cars so they have their new neckerchief slides to wear to the blue and gold this weekend.

So I got that slot cutting bit at Harbor Freight last night and tried it out this morning, there might be a better solution out there, but this will certainly achieve what I was looking to do.

A 1/4" trim router with the slot cutter installed.

I cut a slot into all of them and then inserted the rings.  I cut the slot tight, in this case 3/32" so that the keyring was snug even without the glue.  My hope is that the glue will prevent them from being able to pull out, and the snug fit will prevent them from developing a wobble over time.

The car with the slot cut, ring inserted, and wood glue applied.

The cars with 2 more coats of paint.

Once the glue had dried I sprayed the cars with 2 more coats of paint.  I then used an awl to make indents for the location of the thumb tack wheels.  I made up a demonstration one by inserting the tacks and using a silver Sharpie to add some detail.  The boys will work with their Tiger Adult Partners tonight to put in the tacks on theirs and then decorate them with  paint pens and puff paint.  The prep for this project is time consuming but the materials are cost effective.  I was only doing a dozen this time, but if I were going to do it again it would be more efficient to prep enough for all of the dens and then some, the additional cost in materials wouldn't be significant and I could probably do 4 times as many in only twice the amount of time.

With awl marks for the tack tires.

A decorated example.

A decorated example.

Testing the ring.