Approx. how much time do you spend on the build of a car?

[Scrollsawer]

If it's a kid-parent project, it's a fairly minimal amount of time spread out over many days (i.e., "hey kid, wanna come work on your car?" "No?" "Okay then, maybe tomorrow.").

If it's just me, then I spend a lot of time with pencil to paper, coming up with a design, then variations on the design until I'm happy. This could take 3-4 hours of back-and-forth on paper and measuring everything out precisely. Then the rough cutting is fast. Then the fine cutting takes a few hours. Then the REAL wait and delays are introduced during the sanding, priming, painting, and clear coating. That eats tons of time.

In fact, i need to spend more time on the tuning, but am usually out of time when that stage comes around.

2 hours?!? nope. Not me.

Scollsawer (An Analyst by trade....which factors into me spending tons of time on anything, lol.).

[Vitamin K]

How competitive? To be determined Tuesday evening.

How'd your Grandson do?

[Stan Pope]

How competitive? To be determined Tuesday evening.

How'd your Grandson do?

0.020 sec faster than the 2nd fastest, a sleek car with 3 wheels and a peg. I don't know if any of the cars got on a track prior to start of races ... William's car had rolled at most 2' at a time (on the tuning board) prior to his first race last night!

[quadad]

Very nice Stan. Congrats to your grandson !

[pwrd by tungsten]

How'd your Grandson do?

0.020 sec faster than the 2nd fastest, a sleek car with 3 wheels and a peg. I don't know if any of the cars got on a track prior to start of races ... William's car had rolled at most 2' at a time (on the tuning board) prior to his first race last night!

Congrats Stan!

[Vitamin K]

0.020 sec faster than the 2nd fastest, a sleek car with 3 wheels and a peg. I don't know if any of the cars got on a track prior to start of races ... William's car had rolled at most 2' at a time (on the tuning board) prior to his first race last night!

What form-factor did he go with? The classic Stan Pope railcar? Or something different?

[Speedster]

Congratulations to the Team, Stan.

I'm curious about everything. Shape of car, type of ballast, CM, stock wheelbase or not, 3 wheels, wax, etc. Do you race on the same type track you own? I use a tuning board to give me a starting point but it never ends up the same after I run it down the track. Might we see a picture of the little beauty?

[pwrd by tungsten]

Congratulations to the Team, Stan.

I'm curious about everything. Shape of car, type of ballast, CM, stock wheelbase or not, 3 wheels, wax, etc. Do you race on the same type track you own? I use a tuning board to give me a starting point but it never ends up the same after I run it down the track. Might we see a picture of the little beauty?

A tuning board for steer and you can also take a 6-8 foot shelf and add a rail to the center and elevate about 6 inches and watch the car go down the rail for a few feet. this can be really helpful as well...

[Stan Pope]

Congratulations to the Team, Stan.

I'm curious about everything. Shape of car, type of ballast, CM, stock wheelbase or not, 3 wheels, wax, etc. Do you race on the same type track you own? I use a tuning board to give me a starting point but it never ends up the same after I run it down the track. Might we see a picture of the little beauty?

Thank you, Bill.

CMx planned as 5/8", but as they were smearing epoxy in the voids, they realized that the forward void was not wide enough for 6 1/4" cubes. Ended up 5-4-3, biased to DFW, instead, so lost a bit of CMx. Wheels less than best with no special attention to bores. Axles polished to 0.25 micron, coated with Sailkote, and, after drying, bent 4.5 degrees, buffed, assembled and lubed with graphite.

They raced on wood. (My Freedom track hasn't been set up for a year, now, so I've no idea if the car will run well on it or not.)




ROC vid clips:

William on Center Lane

William on Camera Left

William on Camera Right

I realized as I filmed those clips ... I should have brought my tripod! Familial tremor is taking its toll.

[Speedster]

What is Sailkote?

[Vitamin K]

What is Sailkote?

First I'd heard of it too. Sailkote is a dry, spray-on lubricant that is hydrophobic and designed for nautical applications. Some threads discuss it here on DT, and, apparently, it contains Krytox. It is also, apparently, unkind to plastic parts when wet, so it's recommended to only use it on metal parts like axles, and to let it dry before assembling.

I'm guessing that it serves the same role that lemon pledge (or jig-a-loo) does for other folks?

[LightninBoy]

What is Sailkote?

I'm guessing that it serves the same role that lemon pledge (or jig-a-loo) does for other folks?

Yes. Back in our graphite days, we used it on axles with great success. I never tried pledge with graphite. I tried Sailkote with oil, but it didn't worked as well as jig-a-loo and other similar products.

[Stan Pope]

I'm guessing that it serves the same role that lemon pledge (or jig-a-loo) does for other folks?

Yes. Back in our graphite days, we used it on axles with great success. I never tried pledge with graphite. I tried Sailkote with oil, but it didn't worked as well as jig-a-loo and other similar products.

I wonder how much polishing helps when the polished surface is covered with Sailkote (or lemon Pledge, etc)? I suspect (but have not proven) that we would get as good results stopping at 4 or 8 micron, at least for the first half dozen runs. Anybody got research to confirm or disprove this guess?

[pwrd by tungsten]

Yes. Back in our graphite days, we used it on axles with great success. I never tried pledge with graphite. I tried Sailkote with oil, but it didn't worked as well as jig-a-loo and other similar products.

I wonder how much polishing helps when the polished surface is covered with Sailkote (or lemon Pledge, etc)? I suspect (but have not proven) that we would get as good results stopping at 4 or 8 micron, at least for the first half dozen runs. Anybody got research to confirm or disprove this guess?

Glad it is working for you. I sold mine when it melted the test wheels...

[Stan Pope]

I wonder how much polishing helps when the polished surface is covered with Sailkote (or lemon Pledge, etc)? I suspect (but have not proven) that we would get as good results stopping at 4 or 8 micron, at least for the first half dozen runs. Anybody got research to confirm or disprove this guess?

Glad it is working for you. I sold mine when it melted the test wheels...

Did you apply to wheels? Or axles?

On the axles, not on the wheels! Fully cured before assembly. About 3 days from alignment to race.

Will recheck setup Tuesday in preparation for Districts. I was not satisfied with the wheels he ran. May offer 'em a better set.

I'll spend Tuesday evening showing rest of Grandson's pack how I align and let 'em use my equipment ... with close guidance. Will expect to record before/after times for those who participate. (Already built cars is an ideal environment for my biased weight method!)