Second year racing

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
TechGirlPa
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Second year racing

Post by TechGirlPa »

Hi everyone! I am brand new here. My son's are not in Scouts but they race yearly with our church. Our rules are pretty standard such as BSA wheels but we do not have to use the pre determined axel slots. Only graphite for lubrication. Prior to last year my husband was the car man for our kids, but last year I took over as it is more enjoyable for me. Last year we had two racers, a chunky wedge painted in school colors for DS8 and a slim wedge painted as a Minecraft enderman for DS4. In our church you can race as long as you attend clubs, starting at age 3. DS8 should have won, but due to his car speeding off of the track due to a track assembly issue and damage taken from it, DS4 was the one who won 1st place. This year we needed three cars for DS9, DS5 and DS3. The goal was to make them in line with the things our boys are into right now. DS9 chose skateboard and DS5 chose dinosaurs, but when we realized his little brother would be racing his changed to a dragon. Our race was postponed due to weather and so it will be taking place next week. I plan to update with our results.

DS9's Car:
Image

DS5's Car:
Image

DS3's Car:
Image

All three include lighting on the top and on the bottom to give a little extra flash on track. Comments and ideas for future welcomed. :)
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Vitamin K
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Vitamin K »

Nice!

(I wish my church held a derby race!)

I dig those lighting effects. Any details to share on how you wired them up?
Speedster
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Speedster »

TechGirlPa,Welcome to Derbytalk
Beautiful cars. I Love the wedge design. Are they set up as rail riders?
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whodathunkit
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Re: Second year racing

Post by whodathunkit »

nice looking cars and welcome to derby talk!
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
TechGirlPa
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Re: Second year racing

Post by TechGirlPa »

Thanks everyone for the awesome welcome!

Vitamin K, thank you. I knew I wanted to wire them up (at that time I thought I was only making two cars), but I could not find any actual derby lighting that did what I wanted it to do. Most of them were geared toward headlights. After a ton of browsing on Amazon for something that would work (and not make my slim car become thicker), I came across these craft string lights that appear to be popular right now in decorating (later I also found some at Joann's fabrics of the same size and quality). I can post a link if that is allowed here (I know some forums don't like that). The nicest things about them is that they are flexible, can be trimmed to size even without electronic exlerience, have an on/off switch, and use two CR2032 replaceable batteries like you would find on a motherboard for BIOS data. Anyway, I don't currently have a scroll saw in part because we are fixing up our garage, so the cars were cut to basic shape using a miter and table saw. Then everything from there was done using a drill and Dremel. For each car I made a cavity for the battery compartment then made holes throughout in their designated places for the lights. I then indented the light location using the dremel so that they would be counter sunken into the body. I made channels to conceal the wire in order to wood putty it toward the end of the process. With the dino car I plastered it on in order to give a dino dig look.

Here is the undercarriage of one during the light installation:
Image

Image

And here is the Dino Dig car in process:
Image

If you try this process yourself, a few things to note would be that if you want a smooth surface after the fact, and don't want to damage your lights during sanding, they should be sunken appropriately and I even used a little painters tape to help keep them intact. They are durable for the most part but I did have one light become damaged when I forgot it was there and had gone a little crazy with my sanding block. That resulted in splicing in a new light after I had puttied around the original, so don't be like me and instead put a piece of tape there first to remind yourself it is there. Ha ha. Something else to keep in mind is that you can short out your lights if using metal screws to secure it like I did. Of course loosening the screw will bring them right back again. In these areas you can use a thin layer of electrical tape (and I coated the back of my screw heads with nail polish for extra measure). The wires are also easily spliced and reattached using electrical tape. You should also make areas deep enough to conceal your screw heads or chosen method of attaching your wire in order to putty them properly. My field is IT so wiring like this is like second nature for me, but I do not think it would be difficult for anyone especially with these light strands.

If anyone wants additional info on how I worked the wire through the body, just let me know and I will be glad to help.

Speedster,
Thank you very much. I did not do any canting but I did raise a wheel on all of them by bending method. This is because our races are not normally that competitive and I have never seen a car there with any kind of guiding wheel or canting. Since I already get crazy with weight placement and polished axles, I felt that canting would probably be overkill and maybe even unfair in our race. I do however wish to find an adult race in central Pennsylvania or surrounding areas in which I can go crazy, so if you know of any please let me know. :)

Thank you whodathunkit! :)
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Speedster »

Make your car go as fast as you can. You might even want to share your skill with your competition. If your track is a bit rough it should benefit you, and your competition, and you can still do it. On one of your cars simply bend the dominant front axle 2 or 3 degrees and set if for Positive cant. If it hits a mis-alignment on the track it might bounce a bit but hopefully it will go back to the rail instead of flying off the track.
I recommend Troy Thorne's book, "Build a Winning Pinewood Derby car". It can be purchased from Fox Chapel Publishing. I don't usually share mine with my competitors but that would be a personal choice.
Best
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TechGirlPa
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Re: Second year racing

Post by TechGirlPa »

Thanks Speedster! We had a track issue last year. I am guessing it wasn't lined up properly because DS8's car went so fast that when it hit the defect, it flew off and caused damage to the car that I didn't have the stuff to fix on the spot (this year I am taking my derby toolbox and am leaving it in the car just in case). They fixed the track but the damage was done. It stunk for him because in that run it seriously flew, but his little brother ended up taking the trophy instead because of the damage. Last year was my first year working on them so having them both in the top was fun for me. I would just prefer a more competitive setting, but a lot of the kids and parents tend to focus on the appearance (there are prizes for that too) more than the speed. The plan was to have our garage set up with a derby area to help other kids and their parents, but we are unexpectedly expecting and our garage ended up not finished in time this year. I am hoping that next year I will have a scroll saw and drill press set up in there and we will have any families over who need help.
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Speedster »

That's very kind to provide a workshop, and a place, for the racers to build their cars.
Do you prep the wheel bores? Novus 2 is very popular.

The "Mid America" race is coming up. There is a class for everyone. You can mail your cars and then sit back and watch the race on your computer or probably on T.V. The rules are very generous.
TechGirlPa
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Re: Second year racing

Post by TechGirlPa »

Thank you Speedster! I hadn't heard of Novus 2 and it is now in my Amazon cart. Looks awesome! I have used similar products but not for a car yet. I did not do much with the wheels except lots and lots of graphite, looking for imperfections, and alot of testing each wheel per axle to find the smoothest sweet spots. If I detected any hesitation at all, I used them for my raised wheel. I purchased BSA wheels that were a little better than what comes in the kit, but that was because my tool options for lathing and holding things in place are currently limited. It has literally been me sitting on the back deck with a car in one hand and the dremel in the other this year lol. I have a work table for such things but it is in a room in use for a house project and I am unable to carry it in and out right now. Next year everything should be set up and ready to go (I can hope lol).

Have you ever entered the Mid America race? Is it difficult to ship a car and maintain it's integrity? Like axle positioning and such. I suppose overnighting may help, I just haven't had much luck with UPS and FedEx lately lol. I am going to research it. Once everything is set up in the garage (we have to drywall it yet and finish insulating) I want to experiment with lathing wheels, thinning them and custom fabbing them.
TechGirlPa
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The lights

Post by TechGirlPa »

These are the lights I used in the cars. Blue in Dino Dig and Green in Dragon. The Skate car used a purple set from JoAnn Fabrics but it was about the same price for one strand there as two on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010J4RM ... c6a4b9661a
Speedster
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Speedster »

I did race the Mid America a few years ago in the "Adult Graphite". I finished 19th out of 70 or 80 cars. Many on Derbytalk that year also entered and finished in the top 12 where all the trophies were. They did a great job. Some vendors have an inexpensive box you can ship your car. I don't know what effect shipping has on the car but I think the wheels do not sustain damage. Our Pack leader and his son attended the event last year and he said it was a wonderful experience. I took advantage of anything the rules allowed, and they allow a lot. Our Pack leader and his son entered their champion scout car in the Scout Graphite division and they learned how fast a car could actually be made to go. It's quite educational.
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whodathunkit
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Second year racing

Post by whodathunkit »

TechGirlPa
Thanks for the link to the lights you used on your car builds!

I have yet to build a car or a semi truck
That has lights built into the design!
After seeing this topic and the way the lights looked on your cars I'm looking at giving a lighted build a go!

Speaking of Mid America it's coming up quick.. April the 29th !

Like Speedster said
It's lots of fun to race there!


Don't know why!
Every time I race the big rigs I keep getting
The best of show awards for the adult semi trucks.
Just luck I guess!
However I'm looking for that to change soon
and be in hope's that someone else will get that award.
So if you got any good tips and pointers
On how not to get that award I'm all ears.



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What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
Speedster
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Re: Second year racing

Post by Speedster »

Whoda, the only way your Beautiful creations are not going to get that award is if you don't enter. I'm not even sure that would do it. Someone might pay the entrance fee and send in a picture of your latest truck.
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Re: Second year racing

Post by titanNV »

Very cool idea
How much weight does the strand of LEDs add?

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whodathunkit
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Re: Second year racing

Post by whodathunkit »

titanNV

To give you an idea on the shipping weights for the lights I was able to come up with this info.

Rtgs 20 light strand .. shipping weight 1.6 ounce.

Mirco led 30 light strand.. shipping weight 0.3 ounce.

Rtgs 2 sets of 15 light strands .. shipping weight 0.3 ounce.

100 light strands shipping weight 4.0 ounce.
Last edited by whodathunkit on Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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