Derby Talk

I checked out your site, and your Calvin & Hobbes is genius!!!

I'm inspired now... next year, I think I may build a model of a 1964 Model H Zamboni! (Like I used to drive... )

And I, for one, Racer X, appreciate your manufacturing initiative - it's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to do when I retire from my "real" job. After trying out most of them last year on our own cars, we learned and started sharing that knowledge with scouts in the two packs I and my w...

Even after attempting to sharpen the tool, it still only took off powder like shavings, maybe .005 in 5 minutes of work. You may want to sharpen it a little more. Agree with sarge. There is an updated Derby Worx video that shows one how can modify / sharpen the tool for the purpose. The relevant pa...

Very nice; looks like it's shaping up beautifully! Have you checked Google SketchUP's 3D Warehouse? I did a cursory check and didn't find anything, but you never know... I've not become an expert yet, but I've started figuring out how to take cross-section slices of model on any plane... my wife wan...

... Showing the fact and extent of this hypothesized "riding up" seems to me to be a challenge. Since it is a dynamic phenomenon, static observations won't demonstrate it. Ideas, anyone? Duane's right - actually observing this would be horribly hard for amateurs like us. Another way would...

One has a professional miniature machinist as a grandfather, and they did a lot this year. Neither gave any consideration to alignment this year, though. Give 'em a "word to the wise": If they add knowledge of alignment to their tookit, they might just become unbeatable! I sure did! We pi...

Near as I can tell, it was XLR8. Thanks for the knowledge, guys. We actually had two 3-hr workshops that were well-staffed and well-attended. I don't know if the dad/son in question came to either. We did a lot of things right this year, and will do even better next year. The competition will be eve...

Thanks for the compliments... here are the cars as they raced yesterday: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1388.snc4/164094_1635111555534_1169063719_31462452_4508020_n.jpg (After unrelated illegal wheel drama, I ended up gluing the ball in place to make sure no one could have any objecti...

Hi all - first, a request: I'm trying to satisfy my curiosity ("trust, but verify") on something I observed at our derby. I didn't get to read the bottle, but I saw one scout walking around with a bottle of lube that from 8' looked more like an oil can. It was white with black lettering, c...

OK, I tried search, and didn't find any old topics on a puzzling topic (at least puzzling to me!)... there's plenty on polishing axles, and I'm an old hand at removing crimp marks and burrs and profiling the inner faces of axle heads... but... After the nail axles are formed at the factory, none of ...

Update on the Hippo... we're down to the wire again this year Won't have time to clear coat it after paint and decals I think. :roll: The wood marble is captive in the mouth, but is free to roll around; didn't plan that, but it's pretty cool. If someone objects to having a moving part, the body is h...

Aha - the much-overlooked "search" function... thanks!

Very nice - did you cut the whole center section out of a single block? I like the firewall and dashboard! With more time, I'd want to do the same. I've just started messing with Sketchup - I have an idea to create cross-section templates off of the 3D models eventually so that there's no guesswork ...

My boys are getting more ambitious with their designs... here are a couple of in-progress pictures of this year's builds. Thanks to ah8tk for the inspiration to do a full-bodied build! I couldn't get my wife to take a picture of me and my oldest carving his Mario Kart of me guiding the chisels, and ...

For this year's cars, I've used the good old pencil/hand tool to lay out cutting templates from my boys' sketches... but ah8tk's work has gotten me to looking at using 3D modeling to draft them up in the future. Since I don't have Visio, I ran across Google's SketchUp as a possible tool - freeware w...