18 Apr 2006
The other evening I noted that I was busy putting wheels onto an aircraft carrier. Here are the results.
My son’s Cub Scout Pinewood Derby racer:
It raced well but not great. Though he was aiming mostly for a cool-lookin’ car, he wouldn’t have minded winning a lot of races, too. He did win one of his eight heats, but mostly ended up with second-place finishes. A good night overall, and a lot of scouts and parents really liked the car.
A few asked what it was, and he just said “the USS Nimitz”. Like, can’t you see the number, people?
During the preliminary design stage (paper and pencil), he was drawing water droplets onto a basic car shape and I suggested that he make a jetboat racer with water shooting up along the sides. His eyes went wide and he goes “The Nimitz!” We had watched ‘The Final Countdown‘ a few days earlier. At first I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, but the end product is pretty cool.
He wanted to add outlines of elevators and catapults, but we ran out of time and artistic ability. Although I helped with suggestions and making sure no fingers were lost to the Dremel tool, he did the lion’s share of the work.
April 18th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Very creative! My complements to your son. I spent a lot of time this year building a mini-wheel-lathe out of an old drill chuck and a ball bearing. I used a rock tumbler motor to power it. I’m definitely one of ‘those dads’.
April 18th, 2006 at 10:38 am
WHAT??? You can use power tools? Dayum!
April 18th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Bet even grandmas and great grandmas are proud…
April 18th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Murdoc, That’s really nice. I’ve got three kids of my own, and any time I get to spend with them is time well spent. I’m glad to see you doing the soap box competition. I rmember that as a boy scout years ago. And I second the question: You can use power tools!!!??? My, ain’t technology grand. Thanks for the nice post. It’s good to see life going on with everything else so crappy these days. Respects, AW1 Tim
April 18th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Looks great! So you can use tools. Who would have guessed? Huh. LOL! It’s great your son has someone to guide him on stuff like this. As they say, priceless.
April 19th, 2006 at 9:50 am
The car is great- it must have been a lot of fun for both of you- and it’s always cool to have a really creative project.
April 19th, 2006 at 11:20 am
My first racer was depressingly parallelogramish, as Mom wasn’t to slick with the power tools. I used a thin bladed saw to make a couple straight cuts. But my third one, it was teardrop-shaped, lead weighted, and fast. Practice makes better. Looks your boy is already ahead of where I was. I can’t wait til my boy is of scouting age.
April 19th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
If you had installed the reactors, you would have left them in the dust…
April 19th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
It appears the Marines have adopted your design for their version of the Urban Combat Board: http://airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/photos/satirehumor/urbancombatskateboard2.jpg