I recently officiated the Pinewood Derby race for my local Cub Scout Pack 65 in Garland, Texas during its charter year. They did not have a budget to purchase trophies, so I decided to “do my best” and incorporate reclaimed 2×4 pine and cedar boards into functional trophy/display stands for the boys’ race cars.
I used some leftover thin plywood I had previously purchased to make wood tokens, and put the approximately 2 foot by 3 foot sheet into our large laser cutter. I vector engraved the BSA emblem as well as the world scouting emblem, and included the Pack, District, and Council information as well on the back-piece.
For the base, I ran the boards through our planer to smooth them and remove old markings from the boards. I then purposely unfocused the laser by lowering the cutting approximately a half inch to provide a different look – almost a wood-burn feel.
Total length of time to laser 10 trophies was 56 minutes, so my $6 of laser time provided a unique trophy for each boy and a small lesson about reducing waste and reusing when possible. Also, the pack didn’t spend upwards of $100+ to have the trophies engraved.
1 Comment
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Would you have the file you used for the world crest? I would like to do the same on a chair as a gift for a Scoutmaster that has stepped down after many years of service.
Thanks,
Sam
