Axles or Wheels?

[stay at home dad 13]

I'm under a big time issue and need some thoughts. If you only had time to prep the axles or the wheels, which one would you do? I'm thinking axles, for a standard bsa race

[Vitamin K]

If you're running BSA axles, you definitely need to clean those up before you run them. Unworked bores are not too terribly horrible, IMO, especially if you're running graphite.

[Scrollsawer]

Agreed. If you're using the nails/axles, right out of the box, get a small file, and file off the rough spots at the base of the nail, close to the nailhead. Then, file down the underside of the nail head, where there's additional rough areas to smooth down. The wheels are okay, as-is. Use plenty of graphite powder to coat the areas where the wheel touches the axle, and the wheels touch the car.

If you have a handheld drill, or drill press, this is made easier by spinning the nail in the drill, on low speed and filing the rough spots down with your file in your other hand. Also, if you can, get 400 grit, then 600 grit, and even higher grits are available from places like Hobby Lobby in the model making section of the store. Use this site's search function and type 'axle prep' in the search field. There is a lot of great guidance on this site, available for you to leverage when building the car.

Good Luck!

Scrollsawer

[birddog]

If you're running BSA axles, you definitely need to clean those up before you run them. Unworked bores are not too terribly horrible, IMO, especially if you're running graphite.

I'm with Vitamin K on this one. Axle prep to remove those terrible burrs at the head and to remove the grooves is imperative. Much more important than polishing or waxing bores. Our first year, we did good axle prep and ZERO bore prep and still won the pack race.

birddog

[Noskills]

Ditto, but do a least burnish the graphite into the wheel. So make a little graphite pile on a smooth surface and push the inner hub into it and twist. Push some on your finger and push it into the outside hub and twist. Then take a polished axle, put it into the hub and fill the hub with graphite. Hold onto axle and while applying pressure roll the wheel around. Will take 1-2 min per wheel. When all done still apply graphite to wheels.
Noskills

[Speedster]

Concentrate on the wheels. The axle doesn't turn. Mark the axle head with a sharpie and install the axle so the wheel bore does not come in contact with the casting marks on the shaft.
A short story I've told before. Scout got caught with bent axles at District. I gave him a set of raw axles out of the box. He installed them in his car, added no graphite and went on to take 1st place at the District. The only thing I ever do with axles is remove the casting marks under the head and then polish them with Brasso. Our Team took Pack and District last year, never losing a race.