Ranger Derby Cars

How do you guys do the derby cars? Do you supply all tools and materials to shape and paint the cars at outpost meetings? Do you have special meetings outside of outpost meetings to work on the derby cars for those who don't have tools and material to do them? Do some boys just do them on their own?

As well as starting to go to Ranger camps, we're also going to try to start participating in the derby events. Just not sure the best way to go about it. We don't have wood/workshops already set up for this type of thing, so it would have to be brought in and out as we do them.

Did derby prep different ways over the years. For us, the best way seemed to be a half-Saturday. (If we knew a boy couldn't make it, we did the basic work and had it ready for him the next meeting night.) All the power tools were on hand, weights, paints, everything. Moms or dads walked the kids around to all the stations.

The track was also set up so they could try out their work. Sometimes, it was a reality check on why they shouldn't skip any of the tips we let them know about.
The actual derby was a couple of weeks later, so they still had plenty of time to fine-tune the cars.

It's actually been a lot of years since we went to a district-level race. A hundred miles is far, but the real reasons are 1) poor organization, 2) too long of a day, and 3) seeing the professional machinist/carpenter dads refuse to let their boys hold the car.

As a sectional commander we started a car crafting over night event. With the focus being on making cars. We brought in all our tools and sat them up for a 23 hour lockin during the winter months.

It was a ton of work trying to setup and clean up and put away so they could work for one hour during the weekly meetings.

Right now what we do is this. We sponser a work day from 8am to 3pm. Since we have a ranger building we can keep things sat up for weeks at a time for derby crafting. 3 bandsaws, 3 table sanders, 2 1' sanders, 3 drill presses, table saw, planer, jointer, clamps, drills, paint spraying box and paint curing box. Yup it's quite the operation with dust collection.

Bench top tools have come down in price but we still do the sectional invite for churches that don't have the setup or for those that have found it easier to come to ours.

We charge 3.00 for a shop fee pays for the paint, weights and sand paper.

http://readyrangers.tzo.com has 10 years of events just search for derby crafting on the page.

It's good stuff. Boys don't use the power tools unless they have had a shop class. Sanders are the only exception but we occasionaly have a sanded section of skin that needs a bandaid.

Good stuff. We have built litteraly thousands of cars over the years.

We started a new deal this year for the Church Ribs and Racing... made premade cars for 8.00 or 10.00 for a premade tuned car.

It's all fun.

For those Dads and Commanders that get "down and derby" I remind them that they must feel very big beating a 5 year old out f a trophy... I tell them if you want that trophy that bad I will buy you one or more just please don't take them away from the boys and girls. Some still need to get saved.

Mark Jones

I like the idea of having derby car work days. I guess I can host it over at my shop, which isn't too far from the church, instead of trying to do it at the church where there really isn't any room. Of course that means I'll have to clean it up first.... It has become a catch all spot over the past couple years.