Derby Talk

In my opinion, the 'silly' people are the ones that don't ask questions! I wanted to raise one of my front wheels so that the car has less friction (running on 3 wheels). How far should I raise it off a flat surface--the width of a sheet of paper, the thickness of a dime, or more? We always raise on...

You can still see a visible burr (tiny hole), but it feels smooth to touch--even across the burr. He hand-sanded each for about 2-3 minutes. Was that enough? How do we do it just right? The mold mark dimple on a BSA wheel is generally pretty deep. So you have to take quite a bit of material off to ...

Regardless of the strength of the magnets, I strongly recommend using 5-minute epoxy, or hot-glue to attach the added weight at the weigh-in. This eliminates the possibility of the weights coming lose or shifting around.

The clear coat is applied after all of the finish coats. Maybe you can paint over the clear coat (never tried it), but there would be no advantage to clear coating each finish coat.

Pro-Body Tool for Royal Rangers / S&W Kits http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pro-bodyrrsmall.jpg The Pro-Body Tool will improve the performance of pinewood derby cars by allowing accurate re-drilling of the screw-axle pilot holes on Royal Ranger and S&W kits. Improved axle mounting accuracy e...

Just a few thoughts: Could grooving the axle reduce the initial wheel inertia (akin to raising a wheel)? Wheel intertia is reduced by removing weight from the wheels. Since the axles are static, removing weight would not affect inertia. Could there possibly be a benefit to grooving the axle if you’r...

... or do you have any more new tools Randy?

Possibly; you'll have to wait and see ...

The difficulty with supporting two wheels is that the screw would be quite long. Since it is already thin, increasing the length would increase manufacturing difficulty. Also, in order for a 'dual-wheel mandrel' to work on one wheel, the hole depth in the body would need to deeper. This is also more...

NyOil II NyOil II is a highly-refined synthetic thin-film lubricant with an ultra-low viscosity. When properly applied, it outperforms dry lubricants including graphite with molybdenum . Test Results The chart below shows the result of racing one car with four different sets of wheels. Two sets of ...

Pro-Wheel Mandrel http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pro-mandrelsmall.jpg The Pro-Wheel Mandrel is a precision-machined tool to accurately hold the wheel in the chuck of a drill. Benefits include: Accurately machined shaft allows for precision use in any drill chuck or Dremel-type tool. Step-down on s...

Moved from 'Car Construction' category. Sorry, it took a nudge before I realized this topic should be moved.

Greg, Truing as you describe will make the tread parallel to the wheel bore (which is certainly important). This corrects problems with variances in the radius of the tread (measured from wheel bore to tread surface at several points on the wheel). However, many wheels also have a different type of ...

The new products will show up on the main site on October 1. Until then, forum members can access the products on these sites: Speed Supplies - http://www.maximum-velocity.com/speed_supplies.htm Specialty Tools - http://www.maximum-velocity.com/specialty_tools.htm Blocks, Kits, Wheels - http://www.m...

I suggest running flat axles on either an edge-guide or center-guide track. If the rules allow wheel modifications, I do recommend narrowing the tread. But if this is done (and if it is a center-guide track), I strongly recommend shortening the inside wheel hub to compensate. Otherwise, the distance...

You might want to read through the topic: "Front Wheel Interaction with the Center rail." Although there is a lot of anecdotes stating that canted axles are faster than flat axles, the studies I have seen indicate just the opposite - that flat axles outperform canted axles. Although down-c...