Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

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Nutty Pine
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Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

Post by Nutty Pine »

Hello Pine Car Nation! This is my 1st post on Derby Talk but I am a veteran pine car builder that recently came out of retirement. My Cub Scout son and my nephew William and I built cars in my shop for 5 years. We retired in 2011 when my son crossed over into Boy Scouts. Then, last year my brother asked me to help my Tiger Cub nephew (Marquis) build his car bringing me out of retirement. Then, this year, my brother called me saying he is working 7 days per week, 12 hours per day and if I could I help Marquis with his car for this year’s pack race which was to take place 2 days after I received the call. How could I say no?

I am the person my friend Bill (Speedster) talked about in his post “Crazy Build” http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7529" target="_blank
In fact he held a gun to my head and forced me to inter the pine car mania on Derby talk so, here I am with a question on cambering:

Is there an advantage or a good reason for cambering razor wheels on an outlaw car that will be a 3 wheeler rail runner weighing in at 8 ounces? I did the search feature and found very little information of benefit on the subject. My buddie (Speedster) assured me that someone on Derby talk will enlighten me on the subject.
DerbyAddicted
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Re: Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

Post by DerbyAddicted »

I'm a newbie builder, but I would think so. I think the biggest reason you camber is to minimize contact with the car (not as much with the track) so the fact that your using razor wheels, I would think you would still camber them so they ride on the axle head as opposed to rubbing the body of the car. Just my two cents though.

Welcome to the forum btw.
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Stan Pope
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Re: Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

Post by Stan Pope »

Welcome!

Are your parts and processes precise enough that no alignment is needed after assembly? If so, then negligible, if any, camber is needed. You can ride nicely on "dead-level" rear axles. My parts and my processes aren't that accurate. Never drilled a hole so precisely nor straightened an axle to well that I could not improve performance by aligning the rears! When aligning, you have a couple of options ... you can tweak axle orientation with shims or set screws, or you can tweak toe angle by rotating axles in their holes. The latter depends on having slightly bent axles, so some camber is inevitable.

How much camber? One degree, maybe less, eliminates force of hub against car body (if aligned) and probably gives you enough freedom to complete alignment!
Stan
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resullivan
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Re: Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

Post by resullivan »

Camber does 2 things. It reduces contact with the track which decreases the chances of hitting bad parts of the track, and it causes wheels to migrate towards the head of the axle. No, you should not camber razor wheels.
Nutty Pine
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Re: Newbie to site, veteran Pine Car Builder, cambering?

Post by Nutty Pine »

Thank you Derby Addicted, Stan Pope and Resullivan for your excellent posts and for the information you provided in those posts. Based on that information I have concluded that there is a slight advantage to lightly cambering my razor wheels if for no other reason than to force the wheel hubs out to the axle heads. So, that is how I plan to proceed.

Thanks again guys, and, my best regards to all on Derby Talk
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