Help -- Pro Rail Rider/Pro Axle Press not bending the axles

[terrier412]

Hello all,

Cub Scout mom here. I am trying to use the pro rail rider/pro axle press to bend the axles, but it is not working. I cannot see any bend in the axle at all (my husband tried measuring it with a protractor, but it didn't show any bend). Watched the associated video and followed the directions. The pro axle press is from last year, but the pro rail rider is new. This is the first year I'm trying to bend the axle. I also tried putting a business card strip around the axle, as suggested in a post I saw on here. Still nothing.

I'm trying to get a 2.5 degree bend. I don't have access to a vice or any other tools. (My husband has many talents, but our tool box consists of a hammer and screwdriver. So we really need all the help we can get. I would rather not have to go out and buy anything else.) Our pack and district rules do not allow drilling axle holes.

We came very close to placing last year and achieved speeds of about 210-213 mph, but my son's den is very competitive. We want to try the rail rider technique this year, but I didn't think bending the axles -- especially with the tool -- would be so difficult.

The race is in a week, so I don't have a lot of time.

Thank you!

[john4840]

Hello, the rail riding tool is fairly easy to use and 2.5 degrees is very slight to see by eye. If you roll your axle on a flat, smooth, level table you should see a slight wobble. If you do then axle is bent to 2.5 degrees as long as you used the 2.5 side of the rail riding tool. My Son and I have used these tools for his cars with great success.

John

[whodathunkit]

terrier 412

Stan Pope has a handy chart for measuring the bend of axles.
http://stanpope.net/pwaxlebend.htm

John 4840 is right there should be a very slight bend using the 2.5 side of the tool.

You said your axle press is a year old.. and the rail rider tool is new!
Your older press might be to tall.. for the new rail rider tool to bend the axle at the right angle
so you could have some incompatibility problems with the tools.

(Some problems that can also happen for the tools not to work right together to bend the axle.)
Could be that during the de-burring process of the axle to much material from the running surface has been removed.

To check your tools for a problem:
insert half of pro axle press into the rail rider tool at a point where the machined groove in the 2 meet.
They should be at the same height or the axle press should be slightly higher then the rail rider tool
to prevent shearing of the axle.

There has been some problems with the pro rail rider and axle press's reported here on Derby talk in a few topics.
talk is the fix is using some card stock bent over the axle to help bend it.. you say you tried that!
You could try using more then one card bent over the axle to help bend it with the tools.

If not you can also try using 2 axles to make a bridge to set the axle you want to bend on top of.
You'll want to make sure the 2 axle heads are hanging off the edge of a wood block or a work table edge
so you don't end up bending them as well if there all you have for axles.

You'll want to mark a line about 1/2 inch down the axle shaft (away from the head of the axle)
use this as your bend line for the axle.

Place the axle you want to bend over the top of the 2 axles
and use the screwdriver and hammer to tap and bend the axle at the line marked out.
The chart will help you measure the bend angles of the axle.

Hope this helps and Good luck.

[terrier412]

Thank you for your responses!

Your idea of putting an axle over two other axles and bending it worked! So glad we had extra axles. I downloaded Stan's gauge chart and that was a big help as well. It took a little practice, but we figured it out and got a 2.5 degree bend.

I tried the pro axle rider/press again, putting an extra piece of business card around the axle, but got nothing. I checked to see if there was a problem with the press/rider based on what was posted here, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I even put in an axle straight out of a kit (unpolished with the burr still on it), and it still wouldn't bend.

I'm just so happy we were able to bend the axles! We are getting out test track ready.

Thank you again!

[whodathunkit]

You're welcome terrier412.

At the time I was talking to you..
I was also looking for this topic and could not find it at the time.
http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 7914e85393

You can Thank
Kurt Nordstrom and Stan Pope for the axle bend gauge idea.
As for the 2 axle bridge idea it's one in Troy Thorne books that can also be seen in the topic posted above.

Happy that it all worked out and best of luck at the race!

Whoda.