Final Build for Team Birddog
Final Build for Team Birddog
Well, my son completed his cars last night. All that is left to do is test and tune and pick the fastest car to use at the Pack race next weekend. If we place top 3, we'll also race at the District race in April.
We forgot one speed step, spraying the axles with pledge. Hopefully that won't come back to haunt us as we have no plans to pull axles to spray them.
Here are pics of the 2 cars he built. One has a longer wheel base than the other. They have about a 5/8" COM and use 23 cubes.
Birddog
We forgot one speed step, spraying the axles with pledge. Hopefully that won't come back to haunt us as we have no plans to pull axles to spray them.
Here are pics of the 2 cars he built. One has a longer wheel base than the other. They have about a 5/8" COM and use 23 cubes.
Birddog
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Lookin' good! I don't think you'll lose much by omitting the Pledge.
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Nice looking cars! Anxious to see which wins out - the long wheel base or the front wheel aero. Good luck!
- Scrollsawer
- Master Pine Head
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Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Those are very cool cars Birddog! If the number 72 the Pack number? If not, what's the significance?
Question about your Pledge statement: Do you typically use Pledge like folks use Brasso on their axles? Or do you do it in addition to Brasso?
Good Luck to your son at his final Pinewood Derby!
Scrollsawer
Question about your Pledge statement: Do you typically use Pledge like folks use Brasso on their axles? Or do you do it in addition to Brasso?
Good Luck to your son at his final Pinewood Derby!
Scrollsawer
"Laugh a while you can Monkey Boy."
- whodathunkit
- Pine Head Legend
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Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Nice looking car builds Team Birddog!
Like the car stands seen in the photos as well.
Like the car stands seen in the photos as well.
Last edited by whodathunkit on Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
My understanding of Pledge is that you spray your axles with it after polishing and then wipe off the excess to leave a thin film. Let it sit overnight in a dust-free place and then use it with graphite like you would normally.Scrollsawer wrote:Those are very cool cars Birddog! If the number 72 the Pack number? If not, what's the significance?
Question about your Pledge statement: Do you typically use Pledge like folks use Brasso on their axles? Or do you do it in addition to Brasso?
- whodathunkit
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Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
My Understanding of Pledge is that it can also be used to remove dust from the cars paint job to keep it nice and slick.
Hay every little bit helps right?
Good luck birddog!
Hay every little bit helps right?
Good luck birddog!
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Right, after polishing axles with your favorite polishing compound, you spray them with pledge and let them sit over night. supposedly a thin film of wax is applied to the axles that makes them faster when used with graphite. We did this last year for both the pack and MA cars and it seemed to help.Vitamin K wrote:My understanding of Pledge is that you spray your axles with it after polishing and then wipe off the excess to leave a thin film. Let it sit overnight in a dust-free place and then use it with graphite like you would normally.Scrollsawer wrote:Those are very cool cars Birddog! If the number 72 the Pack number? If not, what's the significance?
Question about your Pledge statement: Do you typically use Pledge like folks use Brasso on their axles? Or do you do it in addition to Brasso?
FWIW, the shorter wheel base car was faster in our test runs (by about 0.005). So, we are going with that one. The race is this Saturday.
birddog
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Birddog,
These looks really nice. I am sure its a bittersweet moment. I made a few fender cars and never seems to get any faster than my non-fender cars. Unsure if this was just too small of a sample size or perhaps I was always off by a hair with my fenders. We went with a 5.25 in wheel base which I think is the sweet spot between better stability and maximizing the time on the slope of the track (no fenders).
Best of luck.
P.S. We also use pledge as described above. This year I coated, blotted off excess, dried with canned air and dropped into a baggie of graphite (until assembly time)
Noskills
These looks really nice. I am sure its a bittersweet moment. I made a few fender cars and never seems to get any faster than my non-fender cars. Unsure if this was just too small of a sample size or perhaps I was always off by a hair with my fenders. We went with a 5.25 in wheel base which I think is the sweet spot between better stability and maximizing the time on the slope of the track (no fenders).
Best of luck.
P.S. We also use pledge as described above. This year I coated, blotted off excess, dried with canned air and dropped into a baggie of graphite (until assembly time)
Noskills
"Nunchuk skills... bowhunting skills... pinewood derby skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog (Pack race results added)
The final race is complete and my son is now the 5 time pack champion. His car ran a pretty consistent 2.93xy where x was 1-3. He had one time that was a 2.929x. Very fast times for this 42' best track (probably the fastest we've ever seen). There was only one other car running sub 3 second times and that car averaged a 2.99xy. I measured the slope of the track and saw a 28 degree reading with my protractor app on my smartphone. I think that was too steep.
I liked this build the best as the only thing I did was instruct, project manage and do one cut on the band saw. Everything else was done by him. He did most everything last year as well, but this year I wanted him to completely own it. I still played a large "project management" role to keep the build on time, as he would rarely come to me and say "we better get a coat of paint on tonight Dad, to stay on time" (does any 11 year old do that?).
His next (and last ever) race will be the District race in April. He's taken 1st the last 2 years, so our sights are aimed high.
For those still racing, I plan to offer up some nice supplies in the for sale sections of this board soon.
Birddog
I liked this build the best as the only thing I did was instruct, project manage and do one cut on the band saw. Everything else was done by him. He did most everything last year as well, but this year I wanted him to completely own it. I still played a large "project management" role to keep the build on time, as he would rarely come to me and say "we better get a coat of paint on tonight Dad, to stay on time" (does any 11 year old do that?).
His next (and last ever) race will be the District race in April. He's taken 1st the last 2 years, so our sights are aimed high.
For those still racing, I plan to offer up some nice supplies in the for sale sections of this board soon.
Birddog
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- Master Pine Head
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Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Good Luck! We have our final race next Saturday at districts. Last chance to win overall champion, we have won rank just not the Grand championship.
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
Congratulations!!
Man, most all of you on here have some early PWD seasons! Are pack hasn't even passed out cars yet, or really even mentioned our PWD yet this year. Our pack races are mid March, and our District is mid April!
Man, most all of you on here have some early PWD seasons! Are pack hasn't even passed out cars yet, or really even mentioned our PWD yet this year. Our pack races are mid March, and our District is mid April!
I wish I was the man that my dog thinks I am.
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
We just finished the district race on Saturday and capped off the career with another district championship. It was much closer this year, which made it even more fun.
3 time district champ, 1 time district runner up and one race that wasn't timed properly. It was a good run (not to mention lots of success at the Mid America race). Not spending $ on a Mid America car this year as we are now focused on Boy Scout activities.
Still selling off some tools/supplies/track, but other than that, we are done!
Good luck to everyone and thanks for all the great advice on this forum over the years!
Birddog
3 time district champ, 1 time district runner up and one race that wasn't timed properly. It was a good run (not to mention lots of success at the Mid America race). Not spending $ on a Mid America car this year as we are now focused on Boy Scout activities.
Still selling off some tools/supplies/track, but other than that, we are done!
Good luck to everyone and thanks for all the great advice on this forum over the years!
Birddog
Re: Final Build for Team Birddog
You know it doesn't have to be over. My son built several more cars as a Boy Scout. He was a Den Chief and would work with his boys and race in the Pack siblings/leader races. True you can't go on to District or Council races, but the joy of building can still be there. My son has now aged out and is almost exclusively involved with Order of the Arrow. I'm an Assistant District Commissioner among other roles, and I'm still building.