Front Weight?
- Thread starter Bretts_daddy
- Start date
Honestly, we aren't trying to win districts or anything...if my son could finish 1st in his Den he'd be thrilled, if he finished first in his Pack he'd be over the moon. He didn't want a "boring" (his words, not mine...lol) wedge car, is really into sharks...especially Great Whites and wanted his car to look like one.
For plastic tracks with no center rail, yes you could narrow the rear or depending on the width allowed extend the NDFW out while running it in reverse. We took a full fendered car, reversed the NDFW, and ensured it protruded past the fenders as much as allowed (make sure the lower edge is highly polished); then when the same car ran on a traditional track, change the NDFW to the correct orientation and make it flush with the fenders.
As for the shark car, it has to be hollowed out in the middle to whatever extent possible You might be able to drill holes near the rear axle and use cylindrical tungsten weights. Leave enough wood to hold the weights and then hollow out the remaining wood. Be sure to cover the holes with packing tape, metal tape, or something like that.
As for the shark car, it has to be hollowed out in the middle to whatever extent possible You might be able to drill holes near the rear axle and use cylindrical tungsten weights. Leave enough wood to hold the weights and then hollow out the remaining wood. Be sure to cover the holes with packing tape, metal tape, or something like that.
There's actually 4 lanes to this track and each lane is approximately 4" wide and curves up on each side so they form lanes...sort of looks like a giant yellow Hot Wheels track.
Too lighten body, drill holes in bottom- cover with packing tape later. cut a simple notch for a bar of tungsten just behind back axle- leave 1/8" of solid wood and then do the notch. Bar is 1/4" x 1/2" x 1.5"
remove enough for your 2 oz behind back axle- either 12 cubes, or much easier for this design, one bar of tungsten. bar can be wood glued or epoxy and then cover with metal tape (silver color but I show in red to stand out.
Bars sold on eBay by a few including me.If you use cubes, first wrap all 12 up with metal foil to make a strong bar that can hold together even out in the air behind your axle.
remove enough for your 2 oz behind back axle- either 12 cubes, or much easier for this design, one bar of tungsten. bar can be wood glued or epoxy and then cover with metal tape (silver color but I show in red to stand out.
Bars sold on eBay by a few including me.If you use cubes, first wrap all 12 up with metal foil to make a strong bar that can hold together even out in the air behind your axle.
It looks like your first proposed hole is right where the front axle slot is...can it be in front of that? As for the holes themselves, what size are we talking, 1/4" 5/16", 3/8"? Regarding the weight I have several tungsten cylinders and even some flexible tungsten bar that you can cut to size with scissors. Couldn't i also just dril 3 of the 3/8" holes in the rear of the car and fill with 1/2oz. tungsten cylinders and than maybe a hole on each side just 3/4" in front of the rear axle and put another 1/4oz. in each?Too lighten body, drill holes in bottom- cover with packing tape later. cut a simple notch for a bar of tungsten just behind back axle- leave 1/8" of solid wood and then do the notch. Bar is 1/4" x 1/2" x 1.5"
remove enough for your 2 oz behind back axle- either 12 cubes, or much easier for this design, one bar of tungsten. bar can be wood glued or epoxy and then cover with metal tape (silver color but I show in red to stand out.
Bars sold on eBay by a few including me.If you use cubes, first wrap all 12 up with metal foil to make a strong bar that can hold together even out in the air behind your axle.
Do you have access to a drill press? If you do, drilling holes between the axles slots on the underside of the body to lighten the body is a lot easier. You really want to take as much wood out as you can without making the car to fragile, so start with small drill bits and work your way up. If you drill all the way through and than cover the top with some thin piece of wood, or just tape or sticker (cut out piece of A4 sticker sheet), I would cover the bottom with aluminium duct tape (not the common ducktape!). If you don't have a drill press, free hand drilling might be a bit more difficult but still possible, just clamp the car down and take it slow. You could also drill some holes and use a coping saw to take a big chuck out of the middle of the car, when doing this you will definitely need to cover the top. No matter how you take wood out, I would leave a decent amount of wood in front of the rear axle slot so you can drill the holes for the weights. Before you drill the weight holes, weight the car after you removed the center wood (include the wheels and axles) to see how much weight you need to add . This way you know how many holes you have to drill for the weights. You can either drill the holes from the side or back, you could do it from the bottom too, but then you can only put the weights in front of the rear axle hole. You could also use txchemist idea's, that way you don't have to drill weight holes. Personally I like the denser weights, however you have to be careful that the weight will be too high for you car. What you can also do, like txchemist suggested, is taping cube or even cylinder weights (if that is all you have) together and securing it to the back of the car, however make sure it's secure (and stays secure during the race!) and doesn't change the length of the car. Good luck and have fun.
Maybe for next year, if your scout wants to do a design car again and still wants to have some speed, make a flat thin body and buy some balsa wood, which he can shape in any form he likes and put that on top of the thin body, although still not the most aerodynamic you will have better weight optimization.
Maybe for next year, if your scout wants to do a design car again and still wants to have some speed, make a flat thin body and buy some balsa wood, which he can shape in any form he likes and put that on top of the thin body, although still not the most aerodynamic you will have better weight optimization.
Nope, no drill press or access to one. All I have is my DeWalt handheld drill. I have mostly tungsten cylinder weights but also some of the flat stick-on weights as well as some of the flexible tungsten weight (bar i guess you'd call it but it's flat and can be cut with scissors and has adhesive on one side). I'm thinking of drilling one 3/8" hole to start out with in the front and see how much weight it reduces the car by and go from there. I want to be able to add 2oz. of weight, I have a derby hole drilling tool that has 3 evenly spaced 3/8" holes in it and I was thinking maybe use that and drill 3 holes in the back of his car as low as i can go and fill them each with 1/2oz. cylinders...that would equal 1.5oz. of weight behind the rear axle and maybe another couple of holes underneath just in front of the rear axle and use 1/4oz. cyclinders there so I'd have a total of 2oz. Another thing I could do is what "txchemist" suggested and cut out a 1/8" notch out of the rear bumper section of the car and replace that with the flexible tungsten I have (cut off a sized to fit piece) and that might equal .5oz. to go with the 3 cylinders...which do you think would be the better option?
I've never used it, but imagine flexible tungsten that could be cut with scissors won't be too dense/heavy. Probably want to stick to pure tungsten to get more bang for your buck.
If you are drilling by hand, you want to be careful not to drill through the car. What I do is hold the bit next to the car to see how deep I need to go, then mark it with a piece of tape. You'll have to do this multiple times of course for different depths. Make sure you use a good bit as well, and not too large of one. Drilling near the axles slots, you'll destroy them if you use too big of a bit or one that doesn't work so well. Also want to make sure you steady the block as vibrations can also destroy the axle slots when you drill. As long as you end up with a little of the slot for the axles, you will be good.
If you are drilling by hand, you want to be careful not to drill through the car. What I do is hold the bit next to the car to see how deep I need to go, then mark it with a piece of tape. You'll have to do this multiple times of course for different depths. Make sure you use a good bit as well, and not too large of one. Drilling near the axles slots, you'll destroy them if you use too big of a bit or one that doesn't work so well. Also want to make sure you steady the block as vibrations can also destroy the axle slots when you drill. As long as you end up with a little of the slot for the axles, you will be good.
That's just how it worked out this year. Like I said, it's mostly for fun and for my son seeing a car he dreamed up doing well in the races. Nobody wants to finish last of course but my son got a taste of doing well a couple years ago when he had a really fast Batmobile themed car and the reason he lost was because us being noob's we weighed the car on our scale at home and it was right at 5oz. so we were sure we were good but once we got their and the Pack's scale weighed it he was shy of 5oz. by 1/4oz. and he ended up coming in 2nd anyway so he always wondered what might have happened if we had something, anything that we could have added to bring the car up to a full 5oz., I'm pretty sure he would have won. Last year we didn't do so well, just had a slow car and he ended up 5th so this year he'd really like to shoot for 1st. We painted the 1st coat on our cars last night, will sand with the fine sandpaper and do the 2nd coat tonight. Final coat will be later in week when I will free-hand a shark's mouth and eyes on the car for him (crossing my fingers there that my hand will be steady...lol).
I see you already painted, I hope you didn't paint around the axles holes, if you did carefully sand it away with a small piece of sand paper, just enough so the wheel hub doesn't ride on paint. Also take your time to get the axles straight into the slots. If you have the tool to drill the weight holes that will help, although I am not sure how it will fit on your curved back end. When removing wood to reduce weight I would start with a smaller drill bit and work your way up to a bigger drill bit. And as suggested by Duckofalltrades marking the drill bit for depth is a good idea and stay away from the sides and axle holes, it's easy to take a big chuck out or splinter the wood if not being careful. Good luck.
