Project – Building Pinewood Derby Track storage boxes

My son’s old Cub Scout Pack asked me to make two storage boxes for their new Pinewood Derby track from free plans on the track website.

They are made out of 4 full sheets of plywood that I had Home Depot cut lengthwise at 25″.  It was cheap plywood so it was all warped by the time that I got it home.  I will definitely buy the better stuff if I ever have to make another set of these.  I ended up cutting a bunch of strips out of the leftover plywood to use as braces to stiffen up the box top and sides.

Once I got it home I cut 4 strips at 11″ x 90″ for the sides.  and 24″ x 11″ for the ends.  I then cut the tops and bottoms down to 25″ x 90″ as well.  I cut some 2×4’s down to 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ x 11″ to act as braces to attach the sides and end to.  Once we got the carcass built we attached the bottom using glue, a few staples to hold it in place, and then 1 1/2″ screws.  We pre-drilled all holes.

I added 2″ strips of ply wood to all the top edges of the inside to help stiffen the plywood up.  It also gave us added material to be able to use the longer screws that came will all the hinges and the handles.

I mounted the top to the carcass using 3 – 4″ gate hinges and then mounted the 4 handles to the end pieces.  2 locking clasps were added to the front.

Once all the hardware was mounted I added 3 cleats to the bottom to allow stacking of the boxes and each one received 2 – 6″ wheels on one end to allow a single person to be able to move it.

Links to the free plans used to make the boxes below:

http://www.besttrack.com/storage_box.htm