Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

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red2cwm
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Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

Post by red2cwm »

Hey guys. I've built a car for our council's mascot to bring to PWD races. He's a Sasquatch and he wanted it to be a stick with wheels. He tried last year and the wheels were at such bad angles that the slightest track imperfection would make it jump into the next lane. So I built him one out of a sweet gum tree branch and blastcar wheels that I modified to fit on a pinewood derby track. I used the standard blast car screw axles to attach the wheels. I'll post pictures tonight, but right now I need some lube help. His requirements to me were that the car look cool but run slow. Thus the moment of inertia killing blastcar wheels. But now I'm concerned based on some test rolls that I've done at home that it may not even finish a race. I'll get to test it on Saturday morning since I'm teaching PWD at Pow Wow and I'll have a track set up. But that's also when I was planning to give it to him. The car needs to be no maintenance since he's a Sasquatch and he doesn't have much manual dexterity and frankly between you and me I think he's kind of lazy. All he does is sit around eating Jack Link's/scaring Cub Scouts and occasionally promotes the Outdoor Code. 8)

My requirements for the lube are:
1. It needs to be better than no lube at all.
2. It needs to not dry out or take a very long time to dry out (years).
3. Not run out/leak out when applied properly.

I've done some reading about Super Lube not drying out but I wanted to get some opinions from you guys.
http://www.super-lube.com/synthetic-mul ... zp-49.html
The catch here like with everything else PWD is that I'm in a bit of a time crunch since I need to have this thing done before tomorrow morning.

Thanks for your help!
ngyoung
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Re: Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

Post by ngyoung »

I would go with oil. Krytox or another PWD vendor blend. All you need is 2 drops per axle and it will last for +50 runs. Apply on the axle and slide the wheel up and spin it around to work the oil around the bore. You can wipe off any trace oil and after that there will be no mess to worry about. Just store the car in a plastic bag to prevent some evaporation between races.

I have heard other leaders making dud cars. Usually it is enough just to not add any weight or minimal weight. If you have a chance to test run it to make sure it goes slow and finishes I would work out a method to add or reduce weight to get it where you want it. I have seen the opposite where a leader puts a over weight car and has the MC pretend to bust them, dumping out extra hidden weight or something.
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pwrd by tungsten
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Re: Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

Post by pwrd by tungsten »

Just go with graphite...

it will last for years (in a marginal state) and is simple...
W Racing!!!!
red2cwm
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Re: Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

Post by red2cwm »

Here's the car as promised. The only thing that came up on the test runs is that the inner hubs sit below the bottom of the car and ride on the guide strip in the breaking area after the finish line which makes the car bounce back after hitting the foam stopper. It rolls almost perfectly straight on a test board and will finish in the bottom 20% of regulation racers based on last year's times.

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Nate
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Re: Need advice on permanent/near permanent lube.

Post by Nate »

Wow, that's an interesting car.

Graphite will be semi-permenant. It'll slow down after a couple dozen heats, but I've got cars from five years ago that still pass the spin test. Spray on teflon might be even better, especially as you're not interested in it as a high end lube.
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