Stan Pope wrote:Hmmm... Now I'm doubting my recollection. Strange, but that memory is so vivid!
I crawled into the back of a storage cabinet and unearthed a damaged but unopened "blue box end" kit (official BSA at that time) and looked at the insert (copyright 1985) and did not see what I recall. Now I need to find an "orange box end" kit and a "black box end" kit!
It may be moot, anyway, since it was in the "how to" part rather than in the "rules" part of the document. But it would be indicative of BSA's thinking behind the kit.
Oh, well!
The PineCar mandrel shows a single wheel being turned ... which is appropriate, since the screw in the mandrel is only long enough to go through one wheel!
The interesting aspect of the "4 wheels on a nail and sandpaper on a block" approach was that it tends to produce wheels of the same size and with cylindrical tread. (But, where can you find a long nail that is straight enough and a drill chuck with such low runout as to make the process really useful?)
Stan: Funny thing about vivid memories, they are so often valid i.e. reflect actual happenings...
I took a look at my older kits, and the Kit No 1622 (1 car-see below) and 1623 (8 cars) have the insert you describe.
On both the 1980 copyright and 1985 copyright versions (at least the ones I have), there are 6 illustrations on the back, with the 3rd being similar to what you describe.
On the front side under a heading of
BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS (See illustrations), point 3 reads as follows:
"
3. REMOVE SEAM FROM WHEELS. Using an electric or hand drill, slide one set of four wheels over a six penny finish nail, then insert this unit into the drill chuck. Make sure the chuck is tight. With a piece of fine sandpaper glued to a flat block, lightly sand all wheels while they spin. (See Figure 3) Do not sand the wheels too thin or they may crack if car is dropped.
Extra wheels available from your Scout dealer - Catalog #1623-A."
The wheels in these kits were similar to the wide tread width currently in use, but rather than a molding "pit" there was a continual seam around the circumference of the wheel, roughly in the center of the tread.
Note that there was a similar note in the even older (kind I used as a boy) kit no. 1690 (see below):
On the back side of the kit under a heading of
BUILDING HINTS, the final sentence reads as follows:
"Remove rough edges from wheels by placing in electric or hand drill and lightly sanding tread."
The wheels in these kits were the so-called "skinny" wheels, and also had a seam running the circumference of the wheel in the middle of the (in this case very narrow) tread surface. Not sure of the copyright date of the instructions on this kit, mine is pretty worn on the back.
A couple of observations:
It is interesting that in the older kits the "rules" were referred to as
Racing Specifications.
Not sure many of the parents I work with today know what a 6 penny finish nail is
I wonder if the tread sanding instructions were dropped before, or as a result of, the conversion to injection molding and replacement of the seam with the new and improved (?) molding pit.
Not to sound like an old timer (I'm not), but in a way I would rather have the seam. The molding pit sets up a very fine line with most local rules i.e. you can sand off enough tread surface to remove the pit, but if you sand too much you risk DQ (not original height, removed ribs on side, wheels too light...).
Randy L: Do I get extra "pinehead posting points" for digging into this sort of stuff, or is it merely a sign of a potential chemical (or other) imbalance on my part???
"Who's Grandpa's neighbor?"... Phil Davis, Down and Derby
