My son Jack is not only starting in J hydro he is also a Cub Scout, and its close to their pine wood derby time. Mike Schmidt and Alan Acker have given me great advise on car building, and how to "read " the rule book. How about some more tips on building and running these cars. Thanks , Shawn
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Pine wood derby cars
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Kerosene and Graphite
Seems to me, we cleaned the axles and wheels with WD 40, then blew them clean and added graphite and kerosene....Testing helps of course....seems weight in the nose was good..
I was hoping you'd come up with a "MATCH BOX" Boat idea....as we need something like this...Last edited by Ron Hill; 01-11-2007, 05:39 PM.
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Turn It Around
Turn the car around backwards as well as use the graphite stuff. Use larger nails to put the front wheels on, more weight and still legal last time I checked. It was not legal to add any weight to the front of the car last time I built one. Might be now, it would help for sure.
Play with the axles a lot.... think of less friction....... depending on what your rules are, bearings help a lot.Dave Mason
Just A Boat Racer
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Shawn,
I'm sure many racer's here will pipe in with their ideas for you but here's what worked for us.....
The first year my son's and raced it was to somewhat shape up a car, paint it and take it to the race and get our butt's kicked. well that was just not going to work for us at all , So I asked a few questions and went to work....
Year two I went with a F-1 car,very much like to '86 Benetton (B186-02) but with a bit taller side pods, I kept the car light and had quite a bit of lead added just fwd of the rear axle to about the front of the cockpit, plus extra lead fit between the rear axle. the other thing I got away with was truing the wheels on a small jewelers lathe and sanding very slightly so they looked used. The axle themselves were trued and high polished and lapped w/ graphite to match each individual wheel.We also ran the car with 3 wheels touching (hard to fool the judges on that one) but we won the pack by a mile and placed 3rd in the regionals with 150 entries.
The last two years I went with a Ferrari F-1 ('96 F-310) look and was never beaten on the Pack level and placed well in the regionals.
Bottom line is have fun, I've seen square blocks of wood win rounds so go figure.there will be a ton of different looks at the races, but I think it comes down to weight and how well your axle / wheel combo is put together.
Carl
94-R
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Pinewood Derby ...
Its just like Stock Outboard racing ...if you want to win you need to know all the speed secrets ... check out ebay ... you can still buy axles that have been turned and balanced ... polish, polish and polish some more ... use lots of graphite on the axles and make absolutely sure they are installed perfectly straight ... same with the wheels ... don't listen to the guys that say to canter your wheels in slightly ... keep everything true and straight ... go to ebay and buy the "legal" derby wheels that have been machined to remove all production burrs ... make sure the inside of the wheel has plenty of graphite ... might even put a small v-groove around the cir***ference of the axle where it meets the inside of the wheel to keep the graphite from spinning off of the axle ... does all this work ... your kid will beat the crap out of all the others and think you are a genius (unless the others have done their homework too). Car design is a factor as well ... keep it thin and narrow. Make sure you are right on weight with the car ... the smallest amount of weight under the legal limit and you will lose ... keep the car weight light and drill "lightning" holes in the bottom and then use small round fishing sinkers to make weight. Hobby shops still sell the flat weights that you can glue to the car bottom for an even lower profile. Just make sure the car profile will clear the track height limitations or the car will "hang up" on the track rails. Balance is everything but keep the weight evenly distributed ... good luck and have fun!
PS: Watch out for the Scoutmasters kid ... they know all the tricks too
PSS: Great idea Ron Hill has about a Pinewood derby for hydros. Never thought about that before but would be a great winter activity!Untethered from reality!
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Shawn-
I remember when Alan was working on Mike's car. I thought it was kinda comical, but I guess some people take this stuff very seriously! I'm sure Alan already told you but he told me he loaded the car with tungsten electrodes from his TIG welder! I thought that was awesome.
JakeJake
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If you must win
You could build a track in the basement like my dad did..we never lost.
Another trick was we raised one of the axles so the car ran down the track on
(3) wheels not (4). I believe one of the rear tires never hit the ground.
Keep the axles straight. Cut your own grooves if you must. A car running down the track straight and not bumping the inside guide is faster.
Always have the car at the maximum weight. Let gravity do it's job.
There are good web sites on more tricks...
Do all this if you must win (most boat racers will fall into this category).
Let you child help if you want the bonding experience...
Good Luck and have fun..
Tom Kargus
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Hey Ron... Here you go:
http://www.raingutter-regatta.com/
I came across this a while back... seemed like a neat idea but never had time to do anything with it... something for kids to do at a show or race or race family kids over the winter... wind power though...
Bob Abbott sent me pics of something like this that were electric... you could buy a track and everything... for kids to race at big races. It was neat, but I went with the pushboat idea at our local race...Fralick Racing
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Tungsten
Yes, we had some large diameter tungsten rod and placed a bunch of it behind the rear wheels into the body to make the front wheels almost lift off the ground and still come in at the max weight. Was supposed to be one of the cookbook speed secrets... Mike did well with that, first place a couple of years. Along with a few of the other friction reducing tricks..
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http://cgi.ebay.com/Pinewood-Derby-C...QQcmdZViewItem
$190 on your paypal and your done!JT Bried
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A guy I work with recommends these two places....
http://www.maximum-velocity.com
http://www.pinewoodpro.com/
DaveI always thought growing up would be cool, I was wrong!
The other day GG laughed at me because I take more pills a day than she does....
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