About Pinewood Derby Car Clinic
Pinewood Clinic
Volunteers from our Pack help scouts start building their cars at the clinic. Scouts learn about classic designs or can bring their own plans. Paint and finishing touches to be completed at home.
We are not trying to compete with professional woodworking shops though! Clinic’s goal is assist our scouts with selecting one of classic designs and performing operations that require less common/power tools.
For safety reasons there should not be no crowd of scouts around any power tools. Please encourage scouts to be patient and wait for their turn to get car worked on one step at a time.
When?
Last Pinewood Derby Car Clinic was on Saturday, January 13th, 2018 at Heritage Christian church (1st floor).
What to bring
Please bring your PWD car kit and weights, as needed. We recommend drawing car design with two views: top and side. Note that front of the car has longer space to the wheel slot compared to with back. Click on the car size picture (below) to download PDF with both views at 100% scale. It will help to draw more realistic design.
Available Stations
- Information about classic designs (wedge, plaftorm)
- Check car weight (official scales)
- Check car dimensions (official size box)
- Simple cuts across/along entire pinewood block (band saw)
- Holes for embedding weights (drill press)
- Smooth rough edged (sander)
- Straighten and polish axles (axle tool, drill & sandpaper)
What’s Not Available?
- Reminder: this clinic is for basic guidance and essential tasks.
- No paints or stains should be used in church classrooms.
- Clinic does not have resources to provide complex shaping with advanced tools. However you can find woodworking shops in the area that can help with an elaborate design.
Helping Out
We can really use adult’s help during the clinic! Here are areas we still need help with:
- Equipment set up at 9 AM
- 9:30 am – 11 AM Supervise scouts and help ensure they are not touching power tools. Only scout should be talking to equipment operator at a time.
- 10:30 AM – 12 noon Supervise scouts and help ensure they are not touching power tools.
- 12 – 12:30 pm help pack up and load equipment into cars.
Sizes, Rules & Design Categories
See official Pinewood Derby page for rules and design categories.
