Orange Crate Derby Car

thingiverse

This is a lasercut model I designed of a down hill racing cart I recently discovered. Using an orange crate as inspiration, teams build cars and then race them on a straight, downhill stretch. The result is kids and their families constructing racers and having lots of fun together. I visited the Orange Crate Derby which has been bringing joy for 35 years: http://orangecratederby.com. Constructing your Orange Crate Derby car is pretty straightforward. Modify the Design: Two files are included with this post, a DXF and a Corel Draw file. Either can be downloaded and edited with suitable software. I encourage you to make it your own by adding changes you'd like to see, but if you just want to try assembling the cart then you can likely use the DXF file with your laser CAM program. Cut Your Wood: Without wheels, the body of the car is 130x30x30mm and all the cuts come from a 200x300mm piece of wood. I designed this around 3mm ply so that's what works with all the slots. You should know your speed and power settings for this material on your laser. Assemble Your Car: From the pictures you should be able to piece it together. The only thing that's not obvious is the axle structure on which the wheels are mounted. Those are made from gluing together three long pieces that are cut from the orange crate. You'll find that the middle of each set of three slats has slits cut in it. That was designed to accept small nails so that the wheels can spin, but I never actually implemented functioning wheels. Please do add them! That's it - just sit back and wait for your glue to harden.