It's Crafty at Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Events!

I'm a wanna-be maker, someone who aspires to making goggles and time machines in a Jules Verne, Sherlock Holmes, Hugo sort of way. 

I bow to the young makers in scout packs around Long Beach who have been working on making model cars for their pack Pinewood Derby events.

Cub scouts in first through fifth grade start with a Pinewood Derby kit and design, carve, saw, sand, drill, weigh, glue and paint cars for the big race, the Pinewood Derby.

Cub scout packs and dens may choose to have a Pinewood Derby car build day, such as the one I attended as the guest of Pack 62. 

The unit's cubs and I took our cars through various stations:

• selecting the shape of a car;
• outlining the shape onto a block of pine;
• cutting along the outline with a scroll saw;
• sanding the edges of the car with electric sanders and sandpaper;
• selecting weights to bring the car's weight to the competition maximum;
• routing a layer from the bottom of the car;
• glueing the weights onto the car;
• and painting the car with a variety of paints.

Each year, the cub scout is challenged to make a new car, building upon the experiences of prior years.  A typical first year car looks like a car, or sometimes, a painted block of pine on wheels!  By the time the scout gets to his fifth Pinewood Derby, he is designing Radio Flyers, eggs on wheels and animal shapes.  Here are images of 100 cool cars at the Boy's Life magazine site.

Next? Races, awards, patches and fun!

A cool fact about the Pinewood Derby is that it originated in Manhattan Beach when Cubmaster Don Murphy, a dad in Pack 280C, devised an activity and event focused around miniature gravity-powered cars.  On May 15, 1953, the first event was held and by 1955, the Pinewood Derby was officially adopted as a national scout event.

Substantial facts in this post were obtained from the BSA official site.

UPLOAD PHOTOS OF YOUR DERBY CARS!