Right of passage

Not sure if this goes as one for me or for the boy. Pinewood Derby time has come and gone here in our house. It was important for me to keep Austin as the head decision maker. He drew up what he wanted the profile to be. I glued that picture on and rough cut it on the bandsaw.



Obviously Austin was thrilled. I helped him use a rasp to finish roughing out the form. Then I turned him loose with sandpaper. It was done when he called it quits. I routed a groove in it and sunk a steel weight into it to get close to the 5oz mass limit.

Last week we finished it up. Austin did the bulk of the painting.


And I did the detail work. Turned out kind of fun.


It was fast enough to qualify as a fast car from our pack, but we did get spanked at the division race last weekend. He was just excited to race and somewhat oblivious to his race results. Good thing. It was a learning experience and I am sure we can make a faster one next year.