Derby Talk

Pack11SanDiego, I have a very simple spring design and latch design that you could adapt to your track. I can email you with the picture and describe the setup... Thank you, John; that was very kind of you to offer. We found another design on this site already, and went with that; looks like it's g...

http://www.pixpond.com/1/m3ispy.jpg Home Depot sells a 1' long concrete spike; about a dollar each. Made of soft metal, it is easily cut with a hacksaw. One spike will weight 3 cars easy. We drill either one 3" or three 1" holes, shape the body, and adjust weight either by cutting/grindin...

...the " bent axle " method might work for a workshop environment... That's all we do; not many of our scouts are really that into intricate technical details. We set the car on a flat surface centered on a straight line, give it a gentle push, note which way it veers, and tweak the domin...

...There are still folks out there who think that the boys should be spectators during the race. There is now one less among that group. ;) Thank you Stan, for bringing this subject up. Our pack had "always done it that way" and we are going to try letting the boys actually participate th...

... I don't like making the boys be spectators in their own race ... but I'd help someone do it if their "traditions" dictated that the boys be "spectators" instead of "drivers". Tradition is about the ONLY reason I can think of for why our pack did it that way. I have...

Thank you gentlemen, for your thoughtful replies. We too have learned restarts are not the best idea; the hard way. :oops: We could enter extra racer(s) to the schedule just in case, but wouldn't that entail running empty lanes? I'm not sure that is a good tradeoff considering how infrequently this ...

I've only been involved in Pinewood for the last three years. The first as a parent of a participant; the last two as a trackmaster who implemented a timing system for our pack's track(a Simplified James Brown's Least Expensive/Mark Logan's Racetimer.) We have about 50 scouts in 6 dens, a 3-lane tra...

You can even import heats generated by Stan Pope and Cory Young's Heat Generator... http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=14722#14722 The author of the software could make things much easier for his users. Thanx, Cory. Appreciate the tip. Mark Logan hasn't posted in a while to the yahoo group, a...

Hello Gang; nice forum here! Mark Logan's Racetimer software nicely automates many of the routine tasks of running a race. You can even import heats generated by Stan Pope and Cory Young's HeatGenerator webpage. There is a discussion and support group with free copies of this software and many knowl...

Hello Gang; nice forum here! This is a simplified version of the World's Least Expensive Pinewood Derby Timer, by James H. Brown, found at http://pinewood.hmpg.net/ When used with Mark Logan's free Racetimer software, it nicely automates many of the routine tasks of running a race. You can even impo...

Hi Gang, We have been using some 1' long concrete spikes from Home Depot cut into 1" lengths for weight. They are about 1/4" in diameter, and 3 of them set side-by-side in the rear come pretty close to 5 oz. gross. It's a little tricky to drill the holes with a hand drill, but I would imag...