Wheel matching

[GrantnHayden]

Yes, I understand the new stock for this year has sealed boxes. I was lucky our scout store had last year's stock of openable boxes. There's always the extra wheel/axle kits with 5 wheels/axles....soon they will be sealed too, huh!?

I did the weighing of kits deal too and found some balsa pine blocks! We're using one now.

Thanks for the wheel tread confirmation. Now...after polishing them to a shine! I have 320 grit. Back to the drill press with those. Wow, I have learned a ton this year.

[Pinewood Daddy]

I did the weighing of kits deal too and found some balsa pine blocks! We're using one now.

I look for block weighing about 100 to 110 grams. I've seen 85 gram blocks but they may lack the strength or stability to maintain their shape after cutting most of the wood away. Since most of the time you're reducing a 100 gram block to a 15 gram slab, an extra 20 grams in the full block (85 to 105) will result in a finished block only 3 grams heavier (approx.). I think it's worth using the heavier, denser block. A block with straight grain will help stability too.





You can guess which is the lightest block by the spacing of the grain. I think we used the vertical grain blocks last year. That made it easier to drill the axle holes. Horizontal grain would cause the drill to walk when it hit the harder growth rings.

[Stephen's Dad]

The actual kits in our Council store are finally glued shut. I bought 8 kits last week but we haven't tested the wheels yet. Stephen also asked the clerk for the 5-pack boxes of wheels. These were NOT glued shut & some were visibly worn from "pickers".

"Picking" is a real sore subject with me. It goes against the spirit of Scouting to knowingly place the future buyer of a kit at a disadvantage by removing the best wheels & leaving an unsuspecting Scout with bad wheels.

Without opening the worn boxes I showed them to the clerk then left them behind. He then opened a fresh case from which we bought several boxes that we'll hand cull & test here when the time comes.

Yeah, I end up buying a lot of junk wheels this way. But I don't have to live with the guilt of sticking another Scout with garbage.

[PWD_addict]

As I was pulling together the wheels for this year for my son and Godson, I went through all my wheels. I had a set of mold-matched 10s that I bought from Randy last year that I was going to use for my son. I had shaved them with the Pro XT2 and prepped them. I gave them a spin and just wasn't happy with the side to side on them. So, I pulled together some 12s from last year and liked them better. I found an 8 from last year that was outstanding. Small bore, very round, practically no side-to-side wobble. I also had a set of 2s from last year and they look pretty good as well. A little better than last year's 10s.

It just goes to show that you need to check all of your wheels, no matter what mold # they are. And, I'm sure it doesn't help that they change molds every now and again so you don't really know what batch you have.