Derby Talk

I agree on the bent axles for the rears. It takes more work, time and a good method for doing this and the understanding of what you're looking for. With bent axles you can get each wheel to come off the body and go to the head over the exact same distance and you know both are dead straight. Twisti...

very cool car

Red Rocket has worked well for us. Lasts forever using on derby cars.

Hopefully you did well tonight and qualified for Districts.
Use 3M Dry-Type silicone from NAPA.
The purpose of the silicone is to shed the oil. Without it the oil hangs up between the axle and the wheel bore. Very little oil is needed with the wax in the wheel bore and the silicone in the axle.

Not sure what you are referring, left and right of the axle.
Rears bent 2.5 degrees and front should be minimum 5 degrees.
We bend ours to where it just cleanly can slide through the wheel bore.

How did you do tonight? I just saw your post.sorry.
Search on YouTube a video by Lightninboy titled Simple Alignment Test for Pinewood Derby.
We used this method to align our bent axles and to check for a good drill when we went that route.
It is the best way to align rear wheels

We started using the Simple Green at our church workshops 2 yrs ago. We use Novus first to get out the imperfections and polish that out. We then just swipe some SG in the bore with large cotton pipe cleaners. We let the wheels set while we polish the axles then we polish the bores with a drill and ...

When my boy was in Scouts we would use the Pa k race to get an initial setup. We steered it and weighted and prepped wheels and axles correctly. But, we got more aggressive with rear weight bias for Districts then more so for Council. Without a track to practice on use the Pack race to get a good ba...

Great first showing for your team.
I would say by your time that a majority of your speed was lost elsewhere.
A lighter car can beat a heavier car if the lighter car was weighted, prepped and steer correctly and the heavier car was not.

OK Whoda, now you’re just showing off. That “canvas” top looks beautiful. Doesn’t surprise me. fortunately or me my audience is made up of kids that first saw derby cars for the first time 2 yrs ago at church. My fit and finish will have to improve I can see that now. I need to come up with a design...

Oh man! Beautiful. Mine looks good from 10’ away. Yours is really a work of art.

A scroll saw sure would’ve cut my time down vs my knife and sandpaper method.

Thanks Zebracar. Any pics of your rig!
I meant for my lights to create a nice blue reflection on the track while at the pin. It didn’t”t show up as well as the blue lights in my avatar pic. Next time I’ll do it differently

whodathunkit wrote: ↑Sun Oct 21, 2018 10:02 am davet
Way to go with the light's on this Jeep with a trailer build!

Thanks. Not anywhere’s close to your works of art. I think I need more tools. Yeah, yeah more tools would be good.

The Jeep frame and trailer are all one piece. 1/4” thick hollowed out block.

Unbelievable!!!!. That would sell for big dough at a craft store. I picture it hanging from the ceiling above some little kid's bed.