Current best axle for graphite?
- Thread starter Kurtis Long
- Start date
The one concern I would have with stainless is that the Great Lakes Field Service Council rules for axles state in rule 5.2. Axles must be attracted to a magnet. I think that the stainless steel grade that is used for axles typically isn't attracted to a magnet.
Unfortunately we won’t be able to race the Great Lakes field service council this year. My boy didn’t end up being in scouts this year. My son has some health issues that cause him to be in and out of the hospital sometimes. This year around the start of Boy Scouts scouts he was having a lot of issues and we didn’t join this year. It was a rough fall and early winter but he seems to be doing good now. So anyways, we were looking into doing a Mid America car so we could still do some pinewood derby races. I feel like we have a good handle on our graphite prep. If we run the oil class I’ll have to get “jig” and figure out what oil to use. So that’s around another $70ish. But we would have everything to get into league racing then. We’ll see. It’s not cheep to build a fast mid America car. Good wheels, axles, air shields, washers, can of jig, oil. More tungsten. x2 on the parts if my daughter decides she wants race.
Sorry to hear that about your son's health issues. I was looking forward to trying to find you at the race and say hi. Good luck if you decide to get into the Mid America field.
Thank you! Maybe next year we could make it back. I love that race. Such a awesome place to have an event like that. I know if you’re doing your research of things on here you should be tough to beat! After a year of research I definitely see areas that would have made us faster. We didn’t run air shields last year and I seen the two cars ahead of us had them. I liked our tune but we messed up a little. It was our first ladder car. COG was ok. Definitely could have done better with our weight placement. We didn’t have the rear wheels all the way back like we should. We had some pretty crude fenders on there. Lol We have some ideas though. I’m noticing some new trends. So we got some stuff to try.
I took some pictures of the car that won first place and noticed the air shields, but didn't happen to be able to look closely at 2nd place so I didn't see theirs (I of course had to point them out to my son so he would want them this year). I do have a question on those that I wonder if you might have input on... The rules essentially say that clear air shields are legal and you can add things to the body to reduce friction, but then they also say "No Washers". We have been struggling with trying to determine if air shields glued onto the body without modification to avoid allowing the hub rubbing against them would be considered against the rules due to the "no washers" rule. I am assuming that they didn't enforce the rule that, but I really didn't get a close enough picture to be able to tell if the air shields on the winner's car were modified, or if they were installed just with an axle like the Hurricrane ones. Happen to have any gut feel on that?
Depending upon what the rules require, you can use shields even if washers are not allowed. Just drill the center out large enough so that hub rides against whatever else you are using on the side of the body. There should still be enough meat to glue the shield to the body.
I think to be safe I would use hurricrane’s shields but modified them so the wheel didn’t touch them. I think last year we used the little bit of CA where the DFW touched the body. Then tried to polish it as best as we could. I also didn’t lock down the NDFW. From what I’ve read that helps a little (as long and the rules didn’t say all of the wheels must spin)
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