Here is my entry for the Southern Northern* New England Pinecar Derby.
All Mixed Up
*The Northern New England Conference has two Pinecar Derbies. One in the northern part, and one in the southern part. We will go to the southern one.
And here it is posing beside its model.
Mixie and her Mommy
The batter in the mixing bowl is a special recipe of my own. Two and a half teaspoons of epoxy resin, a half teaspoon of hardener, and one teaspoon of cocoa. Mix well, pour, and allow to harden.
After I mixed it up, I dipped the beaters into it, installed them in the mixer, and allowed them to drip onto the bowl stand. I made the beaters themselves from paper clips, hot melt glue, and a couple of disks I punched out of a milk jug (you probably can’t see the discs, but the are just above the bowed out part that one would normally lick clean).
The bowl stand is the lid from a container of Play-Doh. I painted it black because neon pink just didn’t seem right.
After I painted everything, I photographed the Mommy Mixer’s labels, scaled them, and printed them out. Then I cut them out with an X-acto knife and glued them in place. There are three such decals: the one with the knob, one along the top of the handle, and one on the front of the mixer.
The Derby is in two weeks.
I am pretty pleased with the result. 
February 5, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Very creative! You should be working in a prototype shop, either that, or in special effects for a film company!
February 5, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Thanks. I don’t think my artistry rises to that level. For example, I should have put in more time with the sandpaper.
February 5, 2013 at 1:16 pm
I almost immediately thought about how you could motorize it.
One of the beaters looks like it’s against the inside edge of the bowl stand. If it spun the bowl stand, which had a shaft at the center penetrating the base.. and gears from there to the rear axle… fun fun!
February 5, 2013 at 1:24 pm
I considered motorizing it, but decided that was way too much work. Usually when I attempt something like that, the engineering concerns override the aesthetic concerns and it ends up working great, but looking like crap.
I considered mounting a vertical shaft motor in the mixer body and running a rubber band around the motor shaft and both beater axles.
February 5, 2013 at 7:02 pm
That is funny, but it really should win!
February 5, 2013 at 9:51 pm
If it doesn’t win, then I will get to see a pretty awesome Pinewood car. I win either way.
February 5, 2013 at 10:03 pm
That has to win for effort and originality!
February 5, 2013 at 10:05 pm
There are three categories for ribbons: speed, creativity, and workmanship. I usually get skunked in workmanship (and may again this time). I’m more interested in creativity than speed, so that’s what I go for. It’s a lot easier to find the time to put into a project like this (and many of the others featured on this blog) now that I am unencumbered by employment.