Favorite Mold Number for wheels?

[Teeeman]

We sorted wheels, mold 12 was our best raw "as molded" wheel...

what's your favorite mold number?

(we're in northern Alabama for general location)

-Terry

BTW, will Scout stores allow you to sort through spare wheel packs and purchase only those wheels you want?

-Terry

[WarpSpeedINC]

I think #12 wheels have been the best and most consistant this year (1 and 2 good also), out of the hundreds of wheels we have been through. There are others that have worked well also, depending on the level of modification allowed. If you are allowed minimal mods, the 12's are your best bet overall.
Warp Speed

[Teeeman]

Thanks!

Wanting my son to do the wheel work this year, got him the dress tools that work by hand (no running machines with his smaller hands this way).

The number 12s were our pick, the 13s were the worst we saw...

1 and 2 were great, but we only got 3 wheels total from those molds of almost 30 wheels (leftovers from last year and fresh purchases this year).


Anybody try asking the Scout store to allow pre-opening boxes of spare wheels to check for mold numbers?

-Terry

[sporty]

how about number 10 's ?


sporty

[Teeeman]

I'll check my notes later today and see what we "rated" the 10s...

I'll type up our results, the "rating" was a 1-10 judgement call by me...

very subjective...

Stan has a simple but well-done idea on testing wheels, the correct way to go about this would have been to build this simple fixture and do a scientific test.


I was (sheepish grin!) trying to take the easy way out and get folks to just tell me their favorites (laughing!).

I am surprised that the number 12, 1 and 2 were mentioend, they were my picks for best, but I only had samples of certain molds... not all.

And "evil 13" was mentioned as the worst, it was both my worst rated wheel AND it was the one I had the most darn wheels from... (figures!)...

-Terry

[Pinewood Daddy]

Out of the 200 I've inspected, I'd say #4 is the best out of the box, then #3, 11, 10 & 12 (in that order). The #11's had excess flash on the side of the wheel, the Pro Wheel Shaver would clean that up and made them the best. The #2's I've seen are either very good or very bad. The #1's ran out .006 to .009 (maybe OK to lathe). #13's had both good and bad side run-out. #9 & 14 were the worst wheels (by average), but there were 1 or 2 good wheels out of those.

Because there seems to be variations within each mold number, you should inspect each wheel and pick out the best.

Last year I opened wheels kits at the scout store and the girl behind the counter help me search through the for #2's and #8's (MaxV's table said they were the best). I bought 4 or 5 sets. The #8's all ran out .010 (serves me right!). I feel guilty, I won't do it again.

[WarpSpeedINC]

we have actualy found that alot of times, the slow spin method may be better to check wheels raw condition than actual measuring. Don't get me wrong, measuring is very important, but if they don't pass the slow spin test, we don't use them regardless of the measurment.
When measuring a wheel on a pin gauge, you can't measure the roundness of the axle bore, and that is one of, if not the most important factor when choosing wheels.
We have found that some of the "bad" mold wheels mentioned, are very nice once we ream the axle bore. Then, some that measure great, have a terrible axle bore, even after reaming. These are considered scrap, no matter how true they are.
Something to keep in mind!
Warp Speed

[Teeeman]

Thanks all!

BTW, I too had wondered if it was "fair" to sort the wheels at a Scout store, as the next unsuspecting customer would be getting "picked over" wheels...


the paradox is I can't afford to buy 10 boxes of wheels each year to get the handful of good wheels we need for my car and my son's...


I need to learn more about the boring/reaming/burnishing processes... those used properly with the other tools we have on order (shavers) probably would allow even a fairly bad as molded wheel to perform pretty good.

Any recommendations on how to do boring/burnishing/reaming for beginners?
Any good sources for buying pin gauges?


-Terry

[Pinewood Daddy]

... the slow spin method may be better to check wheels raw condition than actual measuring.

Please clarify "the slow spin method". Sounds interesting.

[ronin718]

Since we're only allowed MINIMAL modifications to the wheels (read "light sanding to remove mold mark"), I'd be particularly interested in hearing the rankings of the "raw" 10, 11, and 12 molds.

I currently have a complete set of 10s and 11s, a threesome of 12s, with a couple of 2s to supplement. Thanks.

[jkelli97]

i sorted through 20 boxes today and i found out of 100 wheels only 16 matched sets. also i had 11 wheels which had no mold mark at all. are they from the same mold or from other molds which wernt marked. no #7 or#9. one box were all 5 #16. the rest broke down as follows:
1-10
2-7
3-6
4-6
5-8
6-1
7-0
8-8
9-0
10-3
11-6
12-4
13-2
14-4
15-6
16-7
17-4
18-7
no mark-11

[sporty]

The information is good and handy.


Does anyone ever hand this over to the PWD makers of the wheels.

I still been trying to find out who the MFG is.

To me all the wheels should be the same.

If there is a wide variance in the wheels and the molds. Then Id rather go the way trying to get them to make a more equal wheel.

Sporty

[Stan Pope]

To me all the wheels should be the same.

If there is a wide variance in the wheels and the molds. Then Id rather go the way trying to get them to make a more equal wheel.

Variance in the wheels; variance in the axles. General lack of perfection.

I think that there is value in the variance ... it makes the whole process more interesting and, to some extent, less susceptible to standardized manufacturing techniques in the aftermarket!

More opportunity for learning!

Yes, there is a method to their madness, in addition to the madness in their method.

[sporty]

Sorry,

would have to disagree with you on this one Stan.

Kids should all have a equal and fair chance at PWD.

Children getting less quality of a product than other children.

They all deserve a equal and fair chance at the race.

Not all children or parents have that knowledge or comprehend the kind of tricks they can do to a PWD car.

I saw a few parents, single moms, trying to help their child with building the PWD car.

People with little money and not knowing or having the ability to buy the tools to mod the PWD axles or wheels.

There is even some that dont have the internet.

Even if they dont have any or very, very little variance. It still leaves plenty for people to do.

However, 3/4 of the kids are not gonna know or do those tips and tricks.

Not to mention, I feel the variance of just them trying to align and have good positioned axles in the wholes / slots. give plenty of variance for the PWD car still.

Not to mention design and weight set up.

At the very least, they can MFG wheels and axles that are alot more closer to one another.

Sorry to disagree, However I feel we both make valid points.

Sporty

[dknowles67]

Kids should all have a equal and fair chance at PWD.

I'm curious, how far do you think you should take something like that?
How do you decide where to draw the line?
Should all the blocks be pre-shaped, and pre-weighted, and perfectly aligned?
Then the kids could paint them any color they want, and have a fair chance at winning.

We've had cubs (usually tigers) show up at our derby with no added weight (maybe 3 oz cars).
They had a serious disadvantage against the 5oz cars.

In the grand scheme of things - do perfectly true round wheels make that big of a difference?

I would suspect that they might separate the 1st and 2nd place cars.

I don't think the novice PWD car builder who didn't do any research, and doesn't know anything about PWD cars is going to benefit much from perfect wheels.

If the goal of the PWD is to get father/son to spend quality time together building the car, each component that requires work, will require more time spent together.