Who sells the best block?

General discussions for car and semi-truck racers.
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MOFAST
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Who sells the best block?

Post by MOFAST »

Who sells the best block that has slots? Looking for consistency. I've tried BSA, Revell, and Pinecar and none are very consistent. Looking for straight slots, good grain, correct measurements and free of defects.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by Vitamin K »

I don't know about wood grain (though peep this thread on cutting your own), but I'm never going to bother with pre-cut axle slots again, if I can avoid it. Since you've got a drill press (saw your other thread), why not just drill your own axle holes? Even if you're required to use the existing slots, you can always fill them with wood putty and re-drill them, to assure placement and straightness.
Who sells the best block that has slots? Looking for consistency. I've tried BSA, Revell, and Pinecar and none are very consistent. Looking for straight slots, good grain, correct measurements and free of defects.
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by Speedster »

I would contact the vendors who specialize in what you ask. Buy a few blocks from each of them and decide which one you like the best. Also, if you are one of those who cuts off the back of the block simply have them shift the slots in the block and it will save you some work. Good Luck.
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psycaz
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by psycaz »

Drill your holes first into a block of your choice, then tape two hacksaw blades together and cut your own slots. We've done this for years. Just make sure to cut into each edge of the block them connect across the bottom. Helps keep the blades where you want.
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whodathunkit
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by whodathunkit »

Heres a block right out of the newer kit style..
just how far out of wack is one the saw cut notchs..?
Image
I've seen them a hole lot worse out of some of last years kits.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by pgosselin »

We didn't have to build with slots for most of our Pinewood career so I don't have a lot of experience with slots. However, I noticed that many of the pieces of BSA wood I had were not perfectly square. They may have been, prior to packaging. You may want to check the squareness of your sides first. If they are off, run your blocks of wood through a jointer/planer until all 4 sides (top, bottom, left, right) are square to each other. Then recheck your slots. It could be that the slots were cut perfectly straight, at the factory, but changes in humidity warped the wood slightly in the boxes as they sat on the shelves. Getting the sides square again may line everything up for you.

Planing the sides certainly helped with our build quality this year when it came to drilling holes.

Paul
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by pgosselin »

whodathunkit wrote:Heres a block right out of the newer kit style..
just how far out of wack is one the saw cut notchs..?
Image
I've seen them a hole lot worse out of some of last years kits.
Sweet tool, Whoda. I've got to get me one of those.

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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by Topspin.D »

Planing the sides certainly
Wouldn't planning the sides result in the car being narrow? Maybe that's not a bad thing if you're doing a rail rider (or double rail rider) anyway?!? :thinking:
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Re: Who sells the best block?

Post by pgosselin »

Topspin.D wrote:
Planing the sides certainly
Wouldn't planning the sides result in the car being narrow? Maybe that's not a bad thing if you're doing a rail rider (or double rail rider) anyway?!? :thinking:
Yes, it does result in it being slightly thinner. The trick is to set the jointer/planer so that the knives are barely taking off any wood. Then you run the block through multiple times until you get each side square. Because you are taking off so little on each pass, the difference is barely noticeable. On a lot of those pieces of wood, it doesn't take much variation in the wood for them to be knocked out of square. That means it also doesn't take much cutting to get them back to square.

Paul
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