Tag Archives: Cub Scouts

Trying to get the tungsten putty off my fingers after pushing the stuff into three holes I drilled across the rear third of Mr. Boy’s pinewood racer while he watched. He’s too little to hold the big drill, but he helped with the putty, which is intended to add weight to the 2-ounce body of the car, almost another full ounce. Weigh-in day is next Saturday when the cars are approved/disapproved by the Cub Scout race committee and impounded until the race the next day.

After the plastic wheels and steel axles are on, the whole thing should weigh a bit over four ounces. Five ounces is the max allowed. I don’t think we’re going to come to close to that this year. Bought the tungsten in place of lead, which is toxic, as we all now know, from this pinewood derby outfitter.

It’s important to get as close to five ounces as you can because the only "motor" these things have is gravity. But the outfitters offer all sort of tips, such as bending up one of the front axles so the car runs on three, instead of four wheels, offering less drag and friction. Rules we have from the race committee don’t mention that. Once we get it all painted in Mr. B’s preferred colors of red, gold and white, I’ll post a picture of it.

UPDATE  Should add that, at the weigh-in, the officials said I should use the available hot glue gun and lead weights to bring the total weight up to almost 5 ounces. I got it to 4.92. I didn’t buy enough tungsten putty. Two ounces of it would have been better. I was still able, even with the lead, to distrubute the weight on the rear 60 percent of the car.