newbie ? "missile" pics added

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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

I used Panef brand Lub-A-Spray dry powdered graphite and I polish the bores with toothpaste. After the toothpaste I followed up the bores with graphite on a pipe cleaner. I tried the moly graphite and it seemed really coarse and my spin times were much slower than with the Panef.

Because of a bout of sickness we have not gotten to the axles or wheels yet this year. Last year I had 5 sets of wheels and axles and just spun them by hand different wheel/axle combos to see which ones ran smoothest. I kept those wheel/axle combos together and prepped them. I grooved the axle and polished to 3000 wet/with dish soap with a new piece for each axle then fine polished with jewelers polish. Should I clean the axles off afterwards with acetone to get polish completely off?

What is "tuning the drift"?

We're at 1" ahead of rear axle for weight balance with our weight added. We run on an aluminum track.

I read a lot on here prepping for last year so thanks again.
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sporty
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Re: newbie ?

Post by sporty »

Try and not to focus so much on wheel spin times. real under load conditions are a better ideal for testing.


I just wiped my axles off and used 90% iso alcohol to clean them.


I have not heard of the type of graphite you are using, spray on. ect.

part of the reason so many people like hobb-e-lube, is of the two properties in it. you might think about trying it.


(rail riding), thats tuning the drift. 99 percent are faster with rail riding then without. they are articles here on what it is and how to do it.

I would recommend, a few walgreens q tips and novu2 to polish your axle bores. Id skip on the toothpaste and leave that for the teeth.


Sporty
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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

It's not a spray on. It just puffs out of the tube. I had some Novus around I used for polishing the windows on my Jeep. I run it on a pipe cleaner last year in one of my wheels and overdid it. Deformed the bore. I thought more and faster was better.

Hob-e-Lube is what I should run? This Panef is so much finer than that though.
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whodathunkit
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Re: newbie ?

Post by whodathunkit »

davet wrote:It's not a spray on. It just puffs out of the tube.
sporty wrote: I have not heard of the type of graphite you are using, spray on. ect.
part of the reason so many people like hobb-e-lube, is of the two properties in it. you might think about trying it.
Sporty to help you out on the panef brand lube devet is talking about.
I post a photo showing it on the bottom.
Image
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

With one week left to finish the car and still have to start the axles/wheels give me this please:
1) Correct bore prep for graphite.
2) I'll polish the axles to jewelers-polish level with no groove. Which graphite? Last year I put graphite on a rag and rubbed it against the spinning axle in a drill to try to get it coated. Do you guys taper the axle heads?
3) Do you guys spin the wheels with dremel to break them in or just use the tuning board to do it?

I'm just trying to do the best with the design I have. Thanks for your time.
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Re: newbie ?

Post by Speedster »

I did a test between Grease-em graphite used on couplers of model trains and Hob-E-Lube graphite. Grease-em is a very fine graphite and was consistently .03 seconds behind Hob-E-Lube. Test was done running the car down lane #1 of my track equipped with a Micro-Wizard timer.
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FatSebastian
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Re: newbie ?

Post by FatSebastian »

davet wrote:Do you guys spin the wheels with dremel to break them in...?
No!
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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

FatSebastian wrote:
davet wrote:Do you guys spin the wheels with dremel to break them in...?
No!
How do you do those cool links?
So I'll run Hob-E-Lube. I read on hear where someone says to use Liquid Glass on the bores then graphite. What is the Novus 2 procedure? Are the Q-tips better than the cotton pipe cleaners?
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Re: newbie ?

Post by *5 J's* »

when using Novus 2 - the q-tips work better for me then pipe cleaners - but there is more chance of damage if the shaft of the qtip is too large or drill speed is too high. Personally - I think Sporty's bore polish rods work better - though it cost more to buy the stuff to make the bore rods.
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Re: newbie ?

Post by Noskills »

davet,

Ffirst I typically buy wheels that have been trued with the hub done and the bore reamed. I then use a two step bore prep process with two bore prep products sold by a vendor whom shall not be named. (little DT inside joke) Step one is a polish that I apply with the q-tip shaft (low speed, in and out twice). Then clean with alcohol. The second is a shining polish that I apply to the bore, hub and inside rim of the DFW. Let dry over night and buff off with a pipe cleaners. Then I burnish with the bores with graphite. I am sure if you search under "burnish" you can see how others do this. Then I do a light graphite packing with the axel in the wheel before wheel insertion. I know some suggest not to really pack it in tightly or excessively and others will say that burnishing is better than packing. I do both in moderation. I dont think it helps to try to coat the axel with graphite. Other opinions on this?
I agree that one should not break in the wheels. I also do not substantially taper my axel heads.
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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

Here's my boy's missile.Image

[imhttp://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l618/tschidc0/missile4_zps9bd67d0f.jpgg][/img]
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davet
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Re: newbie ?

Post by davet »

Image
Shawn Stebleton
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Re: newbie ? "missile" pics added

Post by Shawn Stebleton »

whodathunkit wrote:Sporty to help you out on the panef brand lube devet is talking about.
I post a photo showing it on the bottom.
Image
The Panef brand at the bottom is what I bought for my older son's first two Pinewood Derby races. I didn't know about other brands, and got what was at the local mom-and-pop hardware store. We thought "Graphite is graphite, right?" At his first Districts (2nd year), his car got slower and slower each race (not timed, but lost to a car in a later heat that he beat in his first heat). Looking back, his pack race had the same type of situation--losing to a car in the finals that he beat early on. Wasn't too happy with it.

We bought weights from MaxV and bought graphite (6th from left in pic) from there to try it, too, and have had lots of success. Two seconds (one with Panef graphite barely beat the 3rd place car several lengths back, one with MaxV graphite barely lost to 1st place car) and 5 firsts in the Pack, and a 12th due to an alignment issue, a 4th, two 2nds, and a 1st in District (all timed format, with MaxV graphite), plus an approximate 5th or 6th in elimination format (his 2nd year) when his graphite (Panef) was wearing out quickly. My older son's first year he finished in the middle of the pack (pun intended) and didn't go to districts.

[Edit: corrected mis-counted identfication]
Last edited by Shawn Stebleton on Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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davet
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Re: newbie ? "missile" pics added

Post by davet »

We used the Hob-E-Lub today and it was slower each race. 3.14, 3.15, 3.18 and 3.19. We had alignment issues though.
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