Derby Talk

I don't know about the pre-shaped kits, but the basic pine car block is too wide for the axles. They need to be sanded down 1/8" in total to allow for proper gap. I run workshops and this is the first thing I tell the dads and kids.

We race with the Indian Guides/Princesses program and we use the single axle pine car kits. My 3 kids and I have built many of these cars with a lot of success . I wouldn't be so worried about the axles. The one big advantage of these axles is alignment. Assuming you don't bend the axle by hitting i...

Good Luck Stan! Thanks for all your help on Derby Talk. .41" seems very aggressive. Nice job getting a stable car at .41"! Our rules don't have a ground clearance minimum. The car just has to be able to run freely on the track. We race on a BestTrack. I'm planning to put some of our weight...

They have a great set of micro-mesh pads at WoodCraft. http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2005233/10573/micromesh-pen-sanding-kit.aspx" target="_blank The kit are small pads that are used for people who turn pens. They work great on axles as well as wheels. You can use them wet or dry depend...

The up wheel should never hit the surface of the track unless you race on cobblestones or have a lot of weight in the front. It could hit the rail, but I'll stick with my earlier comment, if you have a rail rider the up wheel should never hit and is just there to keep you on the stop section and eme...

Yes, I believe it's best to not allow the up, non-DFW, to spin. If you have a properly aligned railrider the up wheel shouldn't touch during the race and is really only there to keep you on the stop section. If you are raising the wheel and NOT railriding - not recommended - then you probably want t...

If there is no ground clearance rule, I would push the rear wheels to the very back and hang your weight below the car and in between the rails of the best track. This will give you more weight drop and potential energy in the flat. I know this creates some drag but I think it would still be an adva...

We race with the Indian Guides/Indian Princesses and they use the Pincar kit with the single axle. We've used them for several years now and grown familiar with some of the advantages/disadvantages of them. The 'tightness' of the wheel onto the axle is related to the ends of those axles. The ends ar...

Great Looking car! The high added weight could be making it much more difficult for the car to be stable and you lose a little potential energy. You didn't have much choice based on the design, but the higher the COM is over the axle the more unstable it becomes. The higher the weight is on the car ...

Sorry, missed the axle rule. Yes, you can cut the end of the hub caps off and push them into the axle to hold the wheel in place. My concern is that you are cutting the hub, if you cut the inside of the wheel hub down you will have very unstable wheels. The proper solution is to inset the hub area o...

Wow! I finally feel like I can offer something!!! I've been racing with the pinecar single axle kit for several years. Since I have 3 kids close in age I've built a bunch of these cars. Our rules are similar in that the wheel mods are OK. Here is my triage of your situation. If you are not willing t...

Thanks Stan. The outside spoke area of the Pinecar wheels are slopped. They are the Mag type wheels with real spokes. The inside area is flat and could position the tailstock support against them, but I'm not machinist enough to cut a mandrel to fit the outside spoke area. I could reverse the wheel ...

Stan, why the spoke surface versus the outer edge of the wheel for orientation? is it the letters? If so, if you had pinecar wheels with no letter would you orient to the spokes or the outer most surface of the wheel?

Sporty, Thanks for sharing with everyone. I tried this process minus the liquid glass and our cars were VERY fast. Going from graphite to oil is a leap of faith without a test track. I was panic stricken at first. We did our final assembly of the cars and rolled them on the kitchen table at a slight...

If you had no restiction on ground clearance, other than it has to run down the track, would the best weighting solution be a lead or tungsten ball centered at the rear axel? ( I'm thinking of an aluminum track with an open center between the rails) For our race this is not hypothetical, we have no ...