Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
Masco
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Masco »

Sweet car. Looks similar to my sons from last year. I am new, and once I figure out how to post pics I will. The image you posted is what our rough cut looked like, but we ended up removing about 60% of the fender wood when we cut wheel holes and rounded all the edges. We also removed about 70% of the body by cutting a large oval in the center of the car (and notches between the fenders and the body; giving it a sort of "trident" look). Again, I will post pics once I figure out how. (note I did a drag and drop from iPhoto but it only pasted the file name/location... e.g. Users/meganmaso/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Originals/2014/Dec%2011,%202014/IMG_4288.JPG ) If you can give me guidance on how to post pics that would reduce my word count by ~1,000.

We came in first for our Den (which got us to districts), but I think 5th overall for the pack. I didn't do enough research on COG and it was way too far back, which caused us to lose a lot of speed from bouncing left to right once it got to the flat. I tried to adjust it as best I could between Pack race and Districts, and it did better, but it didn't solve the problem 100%.

Looks great, good luck!
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Masco wrote:Sweet car. Looks similar to my sons from last year. I am new, and once I figure out how to post pics I will. The image you posted is what our rough cut looked like, but we ended up removing about 60% of the fender wood when we cut wheel holes and rounded all the edges. We also removed about 70% of the body by cutting a large oval in the center of the car (and notches between the fenders and the body; giving it a sort of "trident" look). Again, I will post pics once I figure out how. (note I did a drag and drop from iPhoto but it only pasted the file name/location... e.g. Users/meganmaso/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Originals/2014/Dec%2011,%202014/IMG_4288.JPG ) If you can give me guidance on how to post pics that would reduce my word count by ~1,000.

We came in first for our Den (which got us to districts), but I think 5th overall for the pack. I didn't do enough research on COG and it was way too far back, which caused us to lose a lot of speed from bouncing left to right once it got to the flat. I tried to adjust it as best I could between Pack race and Districts, and it did better, but it didn't solve the problem 100%.

Looks great, good luck!
Hi Masco, welcome to Derbytalk!

:welcome:

I use Imgur to host my images, which makes it easy, because they include a "linked bbcode" link that you can copy and paste directly into the forum.

There's also this sticky thread on posting images.

I had the "tail end wobble" myself last year with one of the cars we built. Hoping to tune better this time around!
Masco
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Masco »

I think I got it...

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I think it could have done better for speed, but we did win "Most Innovative Design"...


Funny "learning experience" story:

During design I was thinking... if the goal is to get the weight as far back as possible, I would put all the weight at the back of the car (so long as it didn't do a "wheelie"). So, I carved out a semi-cirle on the back and assumed I could get enough weights on the back to get us to 5 oz., but we were way light. So, I took 3 quarters and glued them together and attached them vertically on the inside of the right fender over the rear axle, and did the same on the left, and a silver dollar flat between them (we painted the car with them on, but it still looked pretty silly).

At the pack race we watched the car lose a ton of speed on the flat as it bounced left to right. Did a little internet research before districts and discovered that COM location is pretty important :wall:

We replaced all the "coinage" with the tungsten cylinders you see in the pics in front of the rear axles, and some flat weights between the front axles. This resulted in COM at ~1 1/8" in front of rear axle... wasn't super fast, but competed.

Looking forward to seeing more of your pics!
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Did some work with Thing 1 and Thing 2 tonight. Got the other fender for my daughter's car cut (and broken, and glued) and did some shaping on my son's rear fenders. Then he helped me cut some wooden templates for pouring lead bars. I'll show that in another thread, or something.

Here's the older kids' cars thus far.

Image
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Took forever, but the cars have been leaded, finally.

My process is something like this:

- Cut bar shapes into a piece of wood, roughly the thickness of the car body.
- Attach the 'ladder' to a larger piece of wood.
- Heat and pour lead into the bar cutouts. Pry out.
- Select bars to roughly equal the amount of ballast needed. Cut out recesses in car bodies.
- Hammer lead bars to uniform size and width as needed.
- Epoxy bars into car bodies, drill out excess lead as needed.

Here's my daughter and son's car, with the lead bars and weight areas cut out:

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Here's all three of our cars with the lead added. Going through epoxy like water, let me tell you.

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The main downside to using lead is that I elect not to let the kids help with this step. I just don't want to risk them getting exposed to lead. Once I've got the lead sealed inside, they'll get back to work.
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sporty
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by sporty »

Shaping up real nice.

Can't wait to see the colors
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by ngyoung »

Hope you had a respirator for yourself melting all that lead.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Hah, I do all our lead casting outdoors.

Honestly, though, I don't usually smell a lot of fumes from molten lead. It gets liquid at a fairly low temperature. All I smell is the wood smoldering when I pour it into the recesses.
ngyoung wrote:Hope you had a respirator for yourself melting all that lead.
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Got some time with the boy yesterday, so we worked on getting a balsa veneer on the top of his car, to cover the lead. We cut a thin sheet from a block of balsa with the scroll saw, cut it to size and then epoxied it onto the car, and taped it down to get the contour to "fit". Once the epoxy hardened, we sanded it, "painted" it with CA glue, and sanded some more.

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Discovered a handy trick for applying CA glue. Take a piece of masking tape (I used the blue painters' stuff...probably helps, because it has a chemical-resistant coating) and folded it over a scrap of wood. It made a good applicator, and didn't crust up like a paintbrush would have.

Image
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Noskills »

Kurt,
I wrap my finger with plastic wrap from the kitchen to spread my ca glue with my finger. Like your method too.
BTW lead toxicity in terms of brain damage is very unlikely in older kids that don't eat the stuff. Also the brain has done most of it's growing by age 3. So some contact with lead it OK. My 2 cents as a Pediatrician.
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by LightninBoy »

Vitamin K wrote: Discovered a handy trick for applying CA glue. Take a piece of masking tape (I used the blue painters' stuff...probably helps, because it has a chemical-resistant coating) and folded it over a scrap of wood. It made a good applicator, and didn't crust up like a paintbrush would have.
Real men (like [no advertising for this vendor]) apply the CA glue with their bare finger.

I, on the other hand, use these ...

http://www.microbrush.com/automotive/pr ... ltrabrush/

If, the wood is smooth and clean, then one brush will last a long time before crusting up (for example, long enough to coat the entire car in CA) Once it does, I just drop it in acetone and it is as good as new in 30 minutes.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

Hammerin' away at our builds (well, not literally hammering...). Getting the fenders shaped up. Lotsa CA glue on balsa. Lotsa sanding and Dremeling. Got the DFW sides narrowed. Have a little more work to do on our fenders (shaving the bottoms to keep off the rails) and then epoxy, final shaping and then...painting!

First up, here's mine. Woodgrain look is kinda neat, but I plan to paint.

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Next is my daughter's car. I really dig how hers is turning out. Looks very aerodynamic. Emphasis on looks, cuz I have no idea about actual effectiveness.

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Finally, my son's (the elder of my two sons). Kinda wish I could have convinced him to keep the front fenders, because it kind of has a "big bottom" look now, but hey, it's his car.

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Noskills
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Noskills »

Fenderific Kurt!
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Vitamin K
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Vitamin K »

No new car pics (hopefully soon!), but here's some shots of what the Derby is all about...child labor! Spent some time with the kids to select, file and polish axles. I also had them use the Fat Sebastian Industries Concentricity Gauge to choose some good wheels from our pool. Hope to be able to do bore polishing tonight, too.

Here's the boy, filin' and polishin'.

Image

Image
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Re: Team Vitamin K 2015 Lineup/Progress

Post by Scrollsawer »

Good to see the boys taking an active role in the builds. This year, I've really had to cajole one of my boys to get more involved. The other one is doing his part, and the daughter is being pretty flighty about the whole thing. :-/

Ya know, just when I think I'm beginning to figure this whole 'fabrication' thing out, I see folks on here building cars like yours, and I realize I gotta a lot more work to do! Your family's cars are looking great! Those fenders look amazing, and the designs are really creative. :thumbup:

Can't wait to see them finished!

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