Derby Talk

This is my son's first derby and he's really excited. I've read all the tips through the forums, weight in back, thin body, work on axels and wheels. I just found out that the track his pack uses is all wood with no center rail, just side rails. What would be the best way to set his car up? Run as ...

Drill your holes on the opposite side and take a coping or hack saw and just saw up to your holes.

You should have the wheel hole or slot location relieved ahead of installing fenders. Use a spare axle the get the holes loose enough that you can just push them in with your thumb when installing the wheels after you're done with the fenders. Sporty, when I build a car without fenders I push agains...

Just aluminum HVAC tape.

Whoa. Never knew about the RC lathe units. They even have wheel truing lathes. They seem to lock in the wheels with mandrels that slide on the spindle and secured with a screw.

I think derby magic is your cheapest track option for a personal track. It is plastic though so it can build up static and collect debris. I read that can somehow also damage the wheels. Not sure if anyone has come up with a solution for plastic tracks to discharge any static build up. I think the s...

If you already have holes done I think giving the back wheels a very slight bend will be fine. Depending on your axles they may already have a slight bend that you can work with to tune the rear wheels so they travel to the axle head when rolling forward and back. If not, giving them a slight bend t...

Are you using the slots or do you have a setup to drill axle holes? IdeallyII would use a drill press with a "silver bullet" block and use a smaller pin to get the hole drilled at a 1* angle. If using slots I would just push them in at a very slight angle. For the rears you could take a sm...

Properly turned wheels are cut to be true to the bore. Not sure how this tool locks all 4 wheels together. When finished they may all be the same diameter but the runout relative to the bore could end up worse then before. Maybe using the jig with 1 wheel at a time and a gauge pin properly sized for...

I would not recommend trying to sand your wheels true. You are most likely to cause more harm then good. Giving them a light sanding to remove any flaws is fine, I would do that at around 1k-2k grit. Trying to spin them on a drill to sand them true to the bore is not going to give you much better wh...

will we be seeing some Sporty and Sons big rigs at the MA derby?

No. The list I made was mainly for examples. Having a wheel weight minimum isn't necessary. A 2.4g weight limit barely leaves enough room for turning the outside of the wheel on a lathe and removing the double step. Most lightening is pretty obvious just checking visually or by feeling the inside of...

No. the rounding is for reshaping the tread surface to make it round, like a motorcycle tire. The tread shape needs to remain parallel to the bore. The box rules won't stop someone from turning wheels on a lathe to fix any imperfections in run out. Yes wheel weight is not something most want to do. ...

Lol. Thanks for sharing that. This all started to try making something unique and for less then the $40ish it would cost for trophies at a store.

I would suggest adding more details to remove the vagueness. *No removing material from the inside. Min weight ~2.4g *minimum tread width ~7.5mm *removing outside hub double step allowed? Etc. Decide where you want to draw the line. What I listed so far I think allows for basic mods without complete...