Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
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Curse You Red Baron!
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Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Curse You Red Baron! »

Thanks to everyone at Derby Talk for all your help! This is our last year in Cubscouts, and we've learned so much from the everyday discussions here. I'd especially like to thank Sporty, FatSebastion, and Stan Pope. Sporty, your couple of notes a few years back were all we could handle, but have helped as a guide as our skills grew. FS, your questions were always direct and to the point, usually highlighting something I'd overlooked. Stan, your information on alignment moved us from middle of the pack to leaders, but more importantly, everytime we read your posts we had a lot of thinking and learning going on. Lastly, the community here is just great, and you three are a huge part of keeping it strong and supportive.

My scout and I are going out strong, with a win in Webelos II and taking the Pack trophy by 11 hundredth of a second, winning every race, despite a few bumps (see below)

This is my son's car. He chose the design and cut and sanded it. He wanted bare wood, and it had to be a 'Webelo' car. I did the pre-stain and stain because of the fumes. He polished the axles (to 3000 grit, polish and leather to finish) and did step one of the wheel hub polishing (I did step 2 because he was sick that day, and ran out of steam). The wood is 0.8 oz, COM is a shade under 3/4, standard wheel base required, 4 flat on the floor required, slots filled and drilled, back holes drilled at 1.5 degree neg camber with straight axles, DFW with a 2.5 degree bend, split between [junk] camber and toe in, NDFW with 1 degree toe out adjusted to kind of make it all work. Thickness is about 1/4 inch at thinnest points up to about 3/8 inch if I remember correctly. It's in impound now awaiting District races in 3 months.

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Here is our car slipping the surly bonds of earth and taking flight in the pack championship race - lane 3 (from the left) had a bad transition at the last section, as described in a current post, but we still flew over the finish line first:

View My Video

Lastly, here was my fun car - built my namesake, as kind of a tribute to the very first car I worked on with my dad.

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sporty
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by sporty »

you will be missed, and we were glad you came and were able to learn and the forum helped you.

Happy racing !

Sporty
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Noskills
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Noskills »

Nice car. Love the wood. Also how did you do the fin? A separate piece or carved out. Also I like the notch for the starting pin in the front.
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Curse You Red Baron!
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Curse You Red Baron! »

Thanks all, the fin is a separate piece of bass wood from the hobby shop, cut and very lightly sanded. The wood is light but not very strong, and my scout broke the first fin he tried to cut before we changed strategies and he sanded the curve in the back of the car. I helped him sand the bottom to get the curve to match the car, and it nestled in real nicely.

There are several things we do almost by rote now, from the notch up front to cutting off the back 1/4 inch of wood and moving it up front.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Darin McGrew »

The stain on the basswood fin matches the stain on the rest of the car nicely. I've always had trouble getting stain to match on different pieces of wood, sometimes even on the same piece of wood.

And I love Snoopy as the WWI flying ace!

Thanks for sharing.
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davet
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by davet »

2 way cool cars! What do you have around the axle holes?
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whodathunkit
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by whodathunkit »

look like alot of good hard work went into building the 2 cars.

Wow! :idk: why I can't build cars that look that cool. ;)
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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Curse You Red Baron!
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Curse You Red Baron! »

Darin, I know what you mean - I wonder if it has to do with both Pine and Basswood being soft woods. Also, I put on a ton of pre-stain, maybe that helped. I can't claim to be any kind of expert with wood stain.

Davet, Whoda, thanks for the compliments... That's just graphite next to the axle holes. I used a paper punch to cut a small hole in a piece of cardboard, and then lay that over the axle hole (which has a round toothpick resting in it to protect the axle hole). Then my scout clear coated right around the axle hole. Next he dumped a ton of graphite on it. We let it dry, then picked up the car and let the loose stuff fall off. We waxed the exterior of the hub where it runs along the body, and once we put the wheel and axle on we give it plenty of spins against this surface. To our mind, this is not a washer, it's just lubing the surface of the car. :angel:

btw, I started carving Snoopy months ahead of time. I had this half-formed plan in mind last fall, so I brought my knife and block to my son's baseball games, and whittled during the down time.
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Noskills
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Noskills »

One would think that graphite dumped on wet clear coat would make a stucky, lumpy mess. No so?
I clear, let dry, sand if needed, then wax then rub in graphite. Should be graphiting sooner?
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FatSebastian
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by FatSebastian »

Curse You Red Baron! wrote:I started carving Snoopy months ahead of time.
Yes, and it shows. I was wondering how Snoopy was perfectly sculpted.

I actually remember your first post talking about your "favorite car" in which Snoopy was the driver. (Is it still your favorite?) Also I recall your post about what PWD and that original Snoopy car meant to you as a kid, and now helping a child with neurological problems (memorable to me for having done that too).

Please don't be a stranger; come back to share your experiences and derby memories with future Derby Talkers.
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ah8tk
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by ah8tk »

Very cool cars especially the Snoopy-Red Barron car, it is neat there is history behind the car also.

I often use well taken photos of creative cars, from DerbyTalk, to use in a DVD I make to play when the racing is not running to keep the young minds at bay. I usually have to “clean up” the background of most of the pictures I use. I really wanted to use the Snoopy-Red Barron car for this but it did not have wheels on it.

I decided to grab the picture and see if I could clean up the background and add wheels to it. During the clean up I decided the background should include clouds, as if it were flying through the air.

So here is the modified picture, hope you like it:

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Noskills
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Noskills »

Too cool!
"Nunchuk skills... bowhunting skills... pinewood derby skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
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Curse You Red Baron!
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by Curse You Red Baron! »

Noskills, I only have rudimentary testing behind my process, no guarantees that it's better than anything else. I have done many different approaches, and I think this one is as good as any so far.

F.S, I had to laugh out loud at your italicized sculpted. My carving has plenty of flaws, but after you add the paint and scarf etc., it seemed to 'work'. I would have to say the new Webelo car is probably my favorite, given that its the culmination of all the work my youngest son and I have done together. My oldest son quit scouting soon after the posts you reference (you have an amazing memory - heck I don't remember half of what I said.) I think this was the right decision for him, it's just not his thing. However, he's doing great - went to state Spelling Bee last year, won his school Geo Bee this year and is still in the running to go to state, and he has a cartoon that will go into the school magazine this year. Physical stuff is still hard for him; we forced him to take Karate for 18 months, and it did wonders for him, but the psychic toll began to outweigh the benefits so we let him drop. Watching him grow up is a privelege.

ah8tk, your work is amazing, your cars demonstrate some incredible build skills. It's an honor to be included in your compilation - feel free to use the images. I can submit another photo this weekend - with wheels - if that helps, but it looks like you managed it just fine.
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ciodude
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Re: Webelo Power - Thanks Derby Talk!

Post by ciodude »

Hey Red Baron.. don’t say goodbye to the PWD - yet. My 14 year old son left Cub Scouts back in ’09. As a Boy Scout he took on the position of Den Chief and returned to Cub Scouts work with a den of Bears. He liked it so much he kept with them and saw them through to crossover into his Troop! He’s now an Eagle Scout and has returned again, this time to a Den of Wolves and plans to do it all over again. He made a few PWD racers to race in the siblings/leaders races. I usually made something fun to “test” the track when we’d help them set it up. Even if your son doesn’t choose that position, helping with the Pinewood Derby is considered service hours for Boy Scouts, which is needed for certain rank advancements.
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