Derby Talk

This is neat! Fun little project.

Happy 20 years! This was the first Pinewood Derby board I ever found and it remains my favorite!

Never been a huge fan of the Space Derby. It's fiddly.

Did some emailing with John and these are the tech specs for the cable. I'm gonna put them here in case somebody is Googling for the info and needs it: The connectors are technically RJ9, also known as 4P4C, the land line handset size. Also, the orientation is important (opposite to the telecom stan...

Wheelbase is a balance between stability and better potential energy utilization. A longer wheelbase gives better stability. A shorter wheelbase moves more energy up the slope. The default BSA wheelbase is much too short, IMO. I usually go for about 5" for wheelbase these days, which has seemed...

I have the Harbor Freight scroll saw which seems like, 95% of the same thing as the Wen model. Overall it's worked pretty well. Gets the job done and gave me a lot of decent cuts. I lost the adapters that let you use plain-end blades, but the blades I wanted were always available with pin-end, so th...

Well, we weren't able to find a cable in time, so we ended up just having to run the race by points. It's nice that the Judge permits running in offline mode, but they really need to put more info about those cables on their site. The link to email on the site is non-functional. Is there any way to ...

I can't find specifications on the website, so I thought I would ask here. The cable that connects the Judge Timer to the start gate latch appears to be a telephone cord, but an RJ11 connector is too fat to fit. Does anybody know what kind of cable it requires? Is it RJ9? New Directions really ought...

Lookin' good! That's a lot of tricky cutting for your ladder car...way more than I've got the patience for, haha!

I hate having the play the Game of Life, but I love your wife's car.

Also the Pokemon Paint job is super cool.

I do love watching a Whoda build happen. It's like seeing the work of a fine surgeon.

So one thing that has always been sort of near to my heart in regard to Pinewood Derby stuff is not wanting to see the people that have lots of money to spend have a huge advantage over those who mainly put in time, effort and brains. Hence why I a hate the idea of people buying premade cars to race...

It's still way cheaper than slot racing, RC or soap box!

I've bent axles at like, 7 degrees with Max-V axles (I like a sick amount of bend on the DFW). Yes, you have to kind of *snap* them into the bores, but it doesn't hurt them if you don't do it repeatedly.

murphken wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 9:47 am FYI: I have purchased over 200 wheel sets from BSA in the last month.

Wow, Murph, you're really keeping busy in the Derby Game these days, huh?

My advice: Ditch the chain-saver and get some Heavy Duty Max-Pro Silicone Spray or 3M Dry-Type Silicone.

If you're insistent on the chain-saver, spray your axles, let the stuff set a bit, then wipe 'em off so you're left with just a thin waxy film.