Cutting your own pine blocks?

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Vitamin K
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Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Vitamin K »

I hope you guys don't get tired of my incessant questions. I do try to search for past threads, so hopefully I'm not re-treading here.

Anyhow...

Does anybody cut their own blocks of pine for their cars? I am just curious, because it seems that if you need a large number of cars, it might be cheaper to find somebody who is able to do straight cuts on decent quality wood, than to buy a whole bunch of kits.

Or maybe there are other advantages to cutting your own block (wood selection?).

Anyhow, just wondered if anybody does this, and whether it's worth the extra effort.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Scrollsawer »

I do not. Most Packs want you to use the official kit so that the playing field is as level as possible during the boys' builds. However, I have found many folks who stray from the kit and buy 'after-market' parts, including premium pine blocks (e.g., Sugar pine), laser-cut car bodies that aren't pine wood at all, and pre-cut blocks of pine that are for folks who want a cool looking car, but have no tools or skills to turn a wood block into a 'bat mobile', for example.

Not sure you would want to go through the trouble of cutting your own plain blocks ( aka blanks) when the car kits are less than $5 each, and come with decent wheels, and the 4 nails.

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Vitamin K
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Vitamin K »

I was more thinking of it as a cost-cutting measure, if one wanted to build a large number of cars, or if you were going to be experimenting with different designs or suchlike.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Scrollsawer »

Not to bring up an earlier post, but (back to wafer car design), I can usually get three car bodies out of one block of pine. Now, if You plan to use the whole block in your design, then that wouldn't work.

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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Vitamin K »

Haha, that is true. I really do want to look into the balsa wood topper for the next round of cars that I work on, though. So I guess as far as pine goes, I'll be wafering it anyhow.
Scrollsawer wrote:Not to bring up an earlier post, but (back to wafer car design), I can usually get three car bodies out of one block of pine. Now, if You plan to use the whole block in your design, then that wouldn't work.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Oddzilla »

A local pack in our area takes some steps to ensure that aftermarket blocks and pre-cut, pre-drilled bodies can't be used.

They had a branding iron made up with their pack information on it. When they get the car kits, they brand the bottom (and top if scouts want to drill their own axle holes) of the cars before handing them out to their scouts.

That makes sure they use the blocks provided and not after-market kits they didn't make themselves because if it doesn't have the brand on it, they can't race it.

Honestly, for a pure scout function, I think that's a great idea.

If it's recreational and not for awards provided by the packs, then I say go nuts and buy whatever you want.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by resullivan »

The problem with the branding iron is that not all kits are made equal. I bought 3 kits earlier this year. The lightest block was 85ish grams and the heaviest was 151 grams. I just bought another kit to build a car but this time I took the scale to the scout store. Sure, they looked at me like I was crazy when I had 50+ kits pulled out weighting each one, but rules are rules.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Vitamin K »

Weighing 50+ kits? Please tell me you're using hyperbole here. :O

Otherwise, I see a sequel to "Down and Derby" in the works. ;)
resullivan wrote:The problem with the branding iron is that not all kits are made equal. I bought 3 kits earlier this year. The lightest block was 85ish grams and the heaviest was 151 grams. I just bought another kit to build a car but this time I took the scale to the scout store. Sure, they looked at me like I was crazy when I had 50+ kits pulled out weighting each one, but rules are rules.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by resullivan »

To be honest I am not sure exactly how many it was. I only got through about half of them before I started feeling akward. The first 20 or so weren't bad because they were up front. After about the 2nd or 3rd row back I gave up because I was starting to have quite a big stack in the isle (I am not quite sure if it is funny or sad that this is actually true).
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by BallBoy »

I cut my own blocks almost exclusively. You must be aware of your organization's rules in regards to the block. Some require that the provided block be used. The pack I am in doesn't have any rule about it so I cut my own.

I am a hobby woodworker and have all the tools necessary to take rough lumber and turn it into square pieces of wood. When my stock is getting low I head down to the lumber dealer and buy a good 8/4 piece of pine and mill it down to car-sized pieces. Depending on how tall you want your car bodies you could easily get 50 car bodies for about $10-$15 worth of wood.

Cutting your own blocks is also a lot easier on the wallet if you are testing various techniques. I don't mind ruining a block that cost me $0.20. If the holes aren't drilled straigt or I get too ambitious when cutting, I just toss the block in the trash and start over with worries.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Vitamin K »

BallBoy, this is pretty much exactly why I asked about self-cut blocks. Could you share some more information on your cutting techniques and tools, and what sort of sources you use for raw wood?
BallBoy wrote:I am a hobby woodworker and have all the tools necessary to take rough lumber and turn it into square pieces of wood. When my stock is getting low I head down to the lumber dealer and buy a good 8/4 piece of pine and mill it down to car-sized pieces. Depending on how tall you want your car bodies you could easily get 50 car bodies for about $10-$15 worth of wood.

Cutting your own blocks is also a lot easier on the wallet if you are testing various techniques. I don't mind ruining a block that cost me $0.20. If the holes aren't drilled straigt or I get too ambitious when cutting, I just toss the block in the trash and start over with worries.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by BallBoy »

For sources of wood do a local search for 'hardwood lumber' (yellow pages or Google). I found a place near Gaithersburg (your profile puts you in Montgomery Co., MD) called Exotic Lumber that is a full service hardwood dealer. Although pine is a softwood rather than a hardwood, most hardwood dealers sell pine. The 8/4 I referenced refers to the thickness of the board being 8 quarters of an inch (or 2") thick. I like my blocks to have vertical end grain. The 8/4 thickness gives me the option of cutting the blocks horizontally or vertically from the board depending on its grain pattern.

For tools, I use a thickness planer and tablesaw. There are various woodworking websites and forums that would provide better explanations on using those tools to mill lumber than I could on this post. Lately I have been focusing on thinner cars, so I create car blanks that are 1.75" wide and 0.5" thick. So, from a piece of pine that is 2" thick and 8" wide I can get 12-14 thin car bodies for every 7" of length.

If you aren't familiar with or comfortable milling your own wood you could ask to see if someone in your organization would do it. You could also check with the lumber dealer to see what their fees are for millwork. They could take the rough lumber and turn it into boards that are, for example, 8' long by 1.75" wide by 1.25" tall. From that you can cut the 7" long pieces yourself using a variety of power or hand tools.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by DerbyDash »

resullivan wrote:The problem with the branding iron is that not all kits are made equal. I bought 3 kits earlier this year. The lightest block was 85ish grams and the heaviest was 151 grams. I just bought another kit to build a car but this time I took the scale to the scout store. Sure, they looked at me like I was crazy when I had 50+ kits pulled out weighting each one, but rules are rules.
Had the same experience when I bought the wedges from the Scout Shop. I was surprised to find out the big discrepancy between the blocks. I bought a few of them and was able to find one which was significantly less than the others. We used that one for our car which allowed us to use a bit more tungsten...hey, every bit helps!
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by MaxV »

This is the nature of most pine. The lightest block I have found is 2.77 oz, and the heaviest is 6.38.

If you want lighter pine, then go for sugar pine. It tends to run quite a bit lighter than Ponderosa and other pine versions.
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Re: Cutting your own pine blocks?

Post by Oddzilla »

This is true, but for the majority of scouts and parents out there (especially new to the scouts) these things aren't even known or are thought of to be issues.

While everyone with experiece would prefer a perfectly cut block, not everyone has those requirements or thinks about those requirements.

I find that anyone with any major experience or requirements are the exception and not the norm.
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