Derby Talk

Why is it that every time a track goes up for sale, I live 15 hours away? Good luck selling!

The Chinese axles are better, but they are slightly undersized compared to kit axles. I'm not sure about axle slots, but they are a bit too loose for my liking in #44 axle holes without drilling holes underneath and glueing. As for other axles and wheels, no I do not use them. Given the quality of t...

This year the father of the kid who placed fourth place after hearing rumors did a little searching the next day and found a web-site selling a car that looked identical to the winners car. It's a distinctive shape which required a few router cuts, has the identical weight placement (using melted m...

We love GPRM. Another successful Pack race in the bag today and not a hiccup.

IMO the $30 wheels even the playing field. Dumb question. Are you being sarcastic, or do the $30 wheels really make that big of a difference? Nope. All things being equal, machines wheels will be better because they will be more precisely shaped/dimensioned. The more severe the machining/lighter th...

We built a car last year that did that...by accident. Turns out the car was fast enough to earn a trophy, but it was dumb luck. From what I gather, you risk jumping the track doing that, if you raise the wheel on the non-DFW side. Regards, Scrollsawer We did it three years in a row, because I did n...

I just found there's a closer Hobby Lobby that does, but the one I normally visit has that stuff with the models, airbrushes and paint, which are almost on the other side of the store from the PWD stuff.

I think after race season is over I'm going to buy a couple of cars off of ebay and set about beating them... I would personally discourage you from subsidizing ebay vendors with your business. As this thread shows, ebay cars fail to provide the ultimate competition, even at the Pack level. If you ...

We just use the silver duct tape. No glue at all. Same here. I LOVE that stuff! We actually used it to cover several of our cars last year due to time crunch. Honestly, our cars have never looked great since we haven't done good paint jobs since our first year when we only had a Bear. When we made ...

:shifty: Sabotage! More like the unseen providential hand of God. I always encourage my kids to "Do their Best". But even more important is to teach them to accept whatever the outcome is, with filial trust in the Divine providence of God. The failures and hardships usually turn out to be...

Very nice!!! I love the car and the execution. My son will be earning his Arrow of Light next year, and I think we may do a similar design for his last car if he's into it. I think it would be a great way to ride off into the Pinewood Derby Sunset!

IMO the $30 wheels even the playing field. Only for those who have $30 to spend. I've got Cubs on scholarship/full fundraising support with donated uniforms and whose families are or have faced foreclosure. And the point is that the level playing field should be the kits themselves, even though the...

thought its didn't really matter the amount of bend just mattered the amount of steerage... In principle this is correct (assuming that one does not care about other aspects like tread contact with the roadway). My point would be that a little extra steering tweak may be a simple approach to elimin...

I have to buy more sandpaper...I've got nothing higher than 1000 grit right now...though I am interested in how much it /really/ matters. I don't think I'll go higher than 5000 grit at any rate. Has anybody tried using oil instead of water to wet sand, btw? Interested in how well that works. I have...

That's pretty much exactly how we do it in our home. We use Novus 1-2-3 and pipe cleaners (don't care for the a-tips), then a good pipe cleaner graphite burnish on the bore. Wet Sanding the axles up to 8000 grit on the drill press. Remove the extra step on the outer wheel hub if possible too. Scrol...