Fun project

[Noskills]

Someone last year suggested the idea of hollowing out an uncut PWD block and then using many of the techniques discussed on DT to make it as fast as possible. I think this sounds like a great project to keep me entertained while my kids sand their cars over the break. I love the idea of people gawking at a fast, smooth, rail-riding, raw, untouched block!
Noskills

P.S. Will take photos

[Speedster]

A fun way to play with the kids is to drill 2 holes from front to back as far as the drill will allow. Shove 3/8" lead rod in them and cover the 2 holes with "Smiley" faces. Put on good wheels and axles. The car will weigh 7 to 8 ounces and stock cars can't keep up with it. I surely did have fun.

[Noskills]

Well I have a 1 1/8 in forstner bit. Leaves little room for error on the top/bottom of the car. I was able to drilled 3 inches into each end and connect them with a longer paddle bit I have. Already had some cracking and had to repair with wood putty. I have holes in the center of the slots as I drilled into them. I figure it will add to the "raw" look of the block.

Now working on routing out the corners with dremel, file and chisel.

My question for the group is, I can stack the weight pretty high in this car. Should I stack 3 or 4 1/4 in tungston blocks or set them up more like I would for a thin car? I think if the weight is too high I might get wobble right?

Seth

[Noskills]

Few in progress pics. I am tired of trying to remove wood from the very center and will call it quits with a 2 oz wooden block.



Seth

[rpcarpe]

Looks like fun, don't go over about 7-8 oz total... no speed gain.

Are you melting fishing weights into the body? Watch out for burn marks. On the car. Your skin might grow back.

[Noskills]

rpcarpe,

I placed a few tungston cylinders in the far rear and was able to get a COM of 1 1/8th in. Not terrible. I glued the ends back on and you can see the cuts but I bet you wont if you are watching the car race. So now I just need to prep the wheels and axels as well as possible for maximum speed and see how the raw block performs!

Should be fun,

Seth

[drathbun]

I worked on something like this last year but never raced it. Instead of trying to drill, I used the "band saw box" approach to remove the middle. The resulting car was slightly smaller than a full block, but you would have to stack it next to a full-sized block to be able to tell. It took only a few minutes to remove all of the material from the interior of the block that way.

[Shawn Stebleton]

Someone last year suggested the idea of hollowing out an uncut PWD block and then using many of the techniques discussed on DT to make it as fast as possible.

That sounds neat! If I had spare time, I'd like to try my hand at that.

If I did, I'd hollow it out from the bottom. I have a rotary tool with a plunge router attachment, and I use it all day long at our "Fun Day" workshops our pack hosts. We just had this years Fun Day this past Saturday. I rout out weight pockets or whatever else is asked for for about 50 or 60 cars by flipping them over and clamping them into my portable work bench. I'd probably need a longer-shafted router bit to get to the depths for the full block of wood. I have no idea where I could get one that would work with what I have.

With stock wheels and axles I doubt you could get 4 ounces of tungsten in one of those!

[davet]

I wanted to do that last year also. My thought was to cut the top of the block off leaving 3/8" on the bottom where the wheels would go. Then I would hollow out the top portion into the thinnest "U" shape I could make and pin and glue it back onto the bottom portion of the block. Once the top was back onto the base I would cut out the bottom of the base between the wheels just to lighten it up some more.