Loose axle guides?

[Vitamin K]

So a lot of the alignment How-Tos mention a lot of turning, adjusting, removing, re-testing of axles, etc. Is there a way to do this so that your axles don't get loose and wobbly in their guides?

My son's car did very well on his first race, but after he dropped it and the front wheel popped off, it was never quite the same. Tried gluing it, and it didn't help. I still have a nagging suspicion that it was excessive wobble that hurt us at the district race.

Of course, the more I read, the more I get the impression that no serious racer ever uses the pre-drilled axle guides. Do you guys all swear by drilling your own? Does this help with axles getting loose over time?

[whodathunkit]

If the pack or dist rules allow for drilled axle holes over the saw notches.

I'd think most would drill their own axle holes because it gives them more flexibility in design.
From makeing custom or stock to extended wheel base cars or raiseing one of the front wheels.
Or to raiseing the back axle hight thus lowering the back end of the car body closer to the track.

Drilled axle holes also do seem to help over useing the saw notches:
When pulling wheels or axles alot while looking for the best wheel & axle combos,
to adjustments in alignment also.

[Stan Pope]

So a lot of the alignment How-Tos mention a lot of turning, adjusting, removing, re-testing of axles, etc. Is there a way to do this so that your axles don't get loose and wobbly in their guides?

If you must remove/reinsert axles and end up with a loose fit, then you may add a few full-depth layers of wax paper.

If you align by twisting bent axles, then you should be able to complete the alignment with only a few adjustments ... 3 or 4 twists per axle ... once you know how. Regardless, I don't think that twisting an axle in its hole/slot has a significant effect on looseness of fit.

If you align by shims, then the risk increases, since adding a shim involves both removing and reinserting the axle as well as increasing the effective diameter of the axle.

[Noskills]

Vit K,
You do glue your axels in right? Even they are a bit loose the glue will do the trick,
Noskills

[whodathunkit]

My son's car did very well on his first race, but after he dropped it and the front wheel popped off, it was never quite the same. Tried gluing it, and it didn't help.

Seth, it looks as if.. Vitamin K, did use some glue while trying to fix it.

[sporty]

So a lot of the alignment How-Tos mention a lot of turning, adjusting, removing, re-testing of axles, etc. Is there a way to do this so that your axles don't get loose and wobbly in their guides?

My son's car did very well on his first race, but after he dropped it and the front wheel popped off, it was never quite the same. Tried gluing it, and it didn't help. I still have a nagging suspicion that it was excessive wobble that hurt us at the district race.

Of course, the more I read, the more I get the impression that no serious racer ever uses the pre-drilled axle guides. Do you guys all swear by drilling your own? Does this help with axles getting loose over time?

Many builders , scouts, racers, are all building based on the rules, they must adhear to for the race.

Now Their are many serious builders, that have to use the axle slots. Mnay of us on here, tho. Came about with the packs and councils, districts, where the the rules allow us to drill axle wholes.

That is the easier and better way to go. But if the rules do not allow you to do so. Then you have to adapt and overcome and do the best you can within those rules.


Axles get loose in the wood for several reasons, Wood compresses as it gets banged up against. The stop sections for many scout packs are far from being ideal and the cars take some hard stops.

This is the most often the number one reason, the wood (axle) gets loose and sloppy in there.

But yes, as you pull them out or move them about, the wood has already compressed the first time the axle was inserted. And the only thing you can do is add some wood blue to get them tight fitting. I like elmers glue. Sometimes people have added a little bit of water, to get the wood fatter and seems to help some, but as the wood dries back out, it does shrink some. But to me it also causes that area to warp some too. So i stick with the elmers glue.

Does you're rules reguire you to use the slots ?

Sporty

[whodathunkit]

This is a good topic!

Stan and Sporty,
I never thought to ask Vitamin K what type of car kit his sons car was.
If it was a pinecar brand useing a soild axle or a BSA type kit useing the nail type axles.

Some BSA rules or races don't allow for the soild axle types to be used.

However what about the BSA rules that read something like this!
No device may be use as to render the axles as a soild unit.

The Official BSA pinewood derby axle guard is permitted so long as there is a hole drilled in it
So that the judges can see the point on the nail is visible and will know that there is no soild axle.

[Vitamin K]

Hi guys, thanks for the input.

My son and I build his car starting from a Pinecar kit, and we used the pre-cut axle guides. However, instead of using the included wheels, we used a set of BSA-approved wheels and nail-axles from Revell.

I tried dabbing on some wood glue prior to his race at the district. The issue I had was that it didn't seem to bond to the metal...only the wood. The overcoat of glue kept the axles from moving vertically, but they could still slide horizontally (if that makes sense).

Anyhow, I think I will most definitely be drilling our own axle holes next time (provided the rules allow). Especially since I plan to raise one of the front wheels next time.

[MaxV]

PineCar kits have shallow axle slots to accommodate the long rod axles. If you use a BSA block, then the slots are deeper and the axles stay in better (and the wood glue works better).

[Vitamin K]

Hub, that would explain a lot. Feeling more disgruntled about my choice of Pinecar kits the more I learn.

PineCar kits have shallow axle slots to accommodate the long rod axles. If you use a BSA block, then the slots are deeper and the axles stay in better (and the wood glue works better).

[knotthed]

We just fought this with our Mid America build.

We had a car that ran and amazing time(fastest we ever built), but the next run might be .03 slower. Finally started taking pictures of axle position and noticed it moving.

Set it to the best guess and glued it because I could not keep it where I needed it. Really too bad because this car had serious potential.

A couple of late nights before I got it figured out.