Derby Talk

After a short trial this man was found guilty:

http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2009 ... /index.xml

A sad case for all involved.

I had issues last year with curved grain patterns... See http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=3223 I think the ideal block would have straight grain perpendicular to the bit. The grain forms soft wood sandwiched between harder wood. The drill bit tends to get caught in the soft wood and likes to...

Last week there was a gas war a few miles down the road from me. The lowest I saw was $1.219. The local paper claimed it was the lowest price in the nation. Unfortunately it lasted only a day or two. It immediately shot back up to the $1.599 to $1.799 range. It figures - I filled up my Suburban the ...

If you look at wind resistance only then the least dense air will give you the least wind resistance. As temperature goes up the density goes down. As air pressure goes down the density goes down. This can change either by weather or by increasing altitude. As the barometric pressure drops so does d...

Two sensors placed a short distance apart could do the job and would be car length insensitive. Place such a system at the finish line and you get the finish speed. Place such a system at a point along the track where max speed is expected and you get an approximation of the max speed. On a typical ...

PWD: Take a look here for HSS #44 brad tip drill bits, about 2/3 down the page: http://www.wlfuller.com/html/regular_length_brad.html W. L. Fuller does manufacture these but does not appear they sell on-line. I checked with several of their distributers but they did not list the bit. It seems that ...

Thans for the suggestions... let's see, - buy a new HS bit $1.12 from McMaster-Carr - I'll check out the local hardware store. - make a drill guide (to keep the drill from wandering as it enters the wood) Bit did not wander at all when entering. - buy a carbide bit (stiffer to reduce drift in the wo...

I was drilling axel holes with a #44 drill bit in a drill press for my two sons cars today. The blocks were held in place with a vise to guarantee the holes were drilled parallel with the bottom of the block. The first block seemed to go ok but when I did the second block I was surprised to see the ...

Another idea, in addition to a test run at the beginning and at the end, perhaps scheduled test runs mid race such at the 25%, 50%, 75% points. That way an unrecognized disturbance can be detected sooner. I guess that would only make sense if the cause of the disturbance is likely to be determined. ...

Stan, I see what you are trying to do. Here are some considerations that come to mind. 1. This method does not account for events that occur between the start and the end of the race. Perhaps the track gets "disturbed" a third of the way through the race. The "damage" is not noti...

Do you have the detectors in the track or in the bridge?

If in the bridge then you must deal with reflected light from the sun or other sources.

Ideally they should be in the track where there will be less reflections to worry about.

Sporty, I worked with this guy for several years on a regular basis as a District Training Chairman for the district he worked with. He was a professional scouter. I learned of the news yesterday and was shocked. I am very dissapointed with him. I remember all the times I held Youth Protection Train...

At first I thought this would be an exiting addition to racing but then after thinking about it some I now have concerns. I am no expert on child development but from all my experience working with kids I know they develop at greatly different rates even amoung same age youth. Reaction time is one o...

With the J-tubes, keep in mind that the energy of motion is computed relative to the car's Center of Mass (CM). Now, if you slide the moveable weight forward in the tail of that J-tube, the CM is moving toward the front of the car. From the point of view of the CM, the nose is being pulled in close...

To eliminate solenoid coil transients I would recomend using a appropriately sized diode or other transient voltage suppressor instead of a capacitor. A capacitor may reduce somewhat the EMI that can reset computers it will not necessarily keep the transient voltage spike to a level that is safe for...