Power Tool Drag Races Article in the New York Times
Here’s an article about the Power Tool Drag Races. Written by Jessica Bruder. It’s a good article. Click the photo to see the whole thing.
It starts…
My Belt Sander Can Beat Your Circular Saw
By JESSICA BRUDER
Published: August 6, 2008
TEN feet short of the finish line, Barbie Airplane was stranded.
The cheerful contraption – a Craftsman belt sander crowned with a powder-blue toy plane – had been careening down the 75-foot racetrack moments earlier. Then the sander’s rotating belt came undone, stopping it dead.
In the neighboring lane, Heavy Metal Waste, a circular saw souped up with skateboard wheels and flaming antennas, had already rocketed past. Cheers of victory rang from the bleachers.
“Time waits for no one!” heckled the announcer. So Randy Lisbona, a 47-year-old air-conditioning engineer from Dallas, hauled his broken-down belt sander off the track to make way for the next heat.
That’s how it goes at power tool drag races. The premise is simple: Take a hand-held power tool. Rebuild it into a racing machine.
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Charlie Gadeken, who started the haphazard sport with a co-conspirator, Jim Mason, saw the races as a way to get more people involved in creating – and not just watching – mechanical art.
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How weird… that is kinda cool though.
I bet a high-speed dremel tool would make a pretty fast and lightweight race car.