Fixing wrecked axle holes

[terryep]

Ever have an axle hole that went bad? You can fix it by drilling it out much larger (or routing a slot) and filling it with a filled epoxy or similar drill able material. Then drill a new axle hole. The next trick is how do you glue in the axle? To prevent the glue from pushing out of the hole and possibly into your wheel hub you can drill a pressure relief hole into the bottom of the axle hole from the underside of the car, excess glue will push out of this hole. I had to do this for my son's car but the wheel fell off during a race. The wood glue we used did not hold the metal axle in the epoxy hole. What glue would work better (hold it well but not permanently!)

Terry

[Da Graphite Kid]

Terryep, I'm not sure what glue would hold but it shouldn't take anything with much holding power to do the trick as I don't think that there should be that much outward force on the wheels/axles. When we do 'glue' we use a little dab of two-part epoxy.

I really like your idea to fix the wrecked axle holes and will have to remember it in the future.

I especially like your pressure relief hole - although I would use it to glue/epoxy the axle in with. This way, no glue/epoxy gets near the end that has the wheel and cause permanent lock-up! In the past, we have routed out some of the wood in between the axle holes (between left - right sides) so that we could add epoxy to hold the axles with - if needed. Most of the time this was not needed.

Da Graphite Kid

[Stan Pope]

Suppose that you have 1/2 inch of axle shaft (excluding the point) sticking into the wood of the car. Drill a 1/4 inch depth hole centered on the axle hole axis and 1/2 inch from the side of the car. 1/8" of nail shaft will be visible in the 1/4" hole.

When axle alignment is complete, squirt hot glue into the 1/4" depth hole onto the axle shaft.

My grandson's council required that axle nails be glued in place. Structureally unnecessary with properly drilled holes, but the rules said that they must be glued in!

Glue in the slots would be easy to see, but not in drilled axle holes.
We satisfied the rule as above, since they couldn't have seen the glue otherwise.

[terryep]

I like your 1/4" right angle glue pocket idea Stan. If you wanted to get the wheel off you could reheat the glue and pull out the axle without stressing the wheel so long as you don't go nuts with the heat and warp the hub. Our district requires us to use the slots provided but when a cub gets the nail in a bad place it's difficult to fix. Routing out the offending material sounds extreme but a good tool in an emergency. In the last workshop I helped out with the cubs were very anxious to get their wheels on, many rushed and were left with axles so crooked there wasn't much I could do to help them in a 1-1/2 hour meeting. How hard could it be for these kits to be made with drilled holes instead of slots?

Terry

[Stan Pope]

Our district requires us to use the slots provided but when a cub gets the nail in a bad place it's difficult to fix. Routing out the offending material sounds extreme but a good tool in an emergency. In the last workshop I helped out with the cubs were very anxious to get their wheels on, many rushed and were left with axles so crooked there wasn't much I could do to help them in a 1-1/2 hour meeting. How hard could it be for these kits to be made with drilled holes instead of slots?

Terry

When use of slots is required, I still like to have "a way prepared for me" so that the nail "knows where to go." In this case, I carefully drill along the slot so that the nail can be pressed by hand into the "prepared way." Careful centering of the drill is essential!

Can also be accomplished with a nail (head cut off) in a drill press to press that nail into the slot. centering is not quite so critical, since the nail point will tend to move the block to a centered position.

I prefer to press the car body onto the nail. Set the wheel and nail on a smooth disposable surface with the point up. press the car body down over the nail. A dimple under the nail head will help control depth of insertion, and help keep the nail from moving.

The way the kits are made is (or, at least, used to be) to gang a bunch of bodies together and make a pass over a table saw. Two passes, many bodies! Holes? 4 passes per body, with more critical quality control issues.

[terryep]

Not wanting to take my 13" drill press to the cub meeting I built a jig for "easing" the axle holes. It has a bullet shaped nail mounted in a square metal block 10mm x 10mm x 30mm. This block runs in a slot pushed by a flat blade screw diver from mid block. The car body is held down against the stops by hand. See picture. This worked ok but many cubs already had their wheels on before the meeting. Some straight some not.

I was disappointed that no parents stayed to help out. I think this year I'll suggest a workshop outside the regular meeting. Then only those who want help will come.

Terry