Graphite: How to make it last for all the heats?

Crash Enburn

Crash Enburn

0
Jan 18, 2012
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Albuquerque, NM
Historically, we have won the races for our dens, the sibling races, and the Dad races. And then gotten beaten by the same cars in the finals.

How should the graphite be applied to the wheels/axles?

I have always polished the axles and bores. Rubbed graphite onto the axles, and rubbed it into the bore using a pipe cleaner. Then added graphite to the wheel assembly when on the car, and spun the wheels to 'burn it in'.

Should I pack the graphite into the bore, then carefully insert the nail?
Should the axle be one solid surface, or have channel(s) cut into it?
Is there something else?

(I have to run graphite, all four wheels have to run flat)
TIA,
- Eric
 
[font="times new roman, times, serif"]I have had the best luck burnishing in the graphite with a Qtip stick from Walgreen's. After polishing the bore, put some graphite in the bore with your finger plugging the other end...just about half full and then put the Qtip stick in twisting it back and forth. After a few times I take the Qtip and slide it half way through the bore and I roll it in one direction (the direction it will be rolling on the car) on the table about 5 to 10 times and the repeat with the same wheel about 5 times, then repeat for all wheels. After that we install on the car, and with the car up side down, we add more puffs of graphite to the bore and spin the wheels over and over and over and we time each wheel, last car we did we got 35 second spins on each wheel. Keep in mind if you have lighter wheels they will spin less seconds. Hope this helps..[/font]
 
I asked this same question once on another forum. I was told to use oil according to DD4H procedures, then put graphite on the outside of the wheels, where it is very noticeable, but being careful not to get any close to the axles or wheel bores. Ergo, you are running with graphite, by lubricating the outside surfaces.
 
OPARENNEN said:
I asked this same question once on another forum. I was told to use oil according to DD4H procedures, then put graphite on the outside of the wheels, where it is very noticeable, but being careful not to get any close to the axles or wheel bores. Ergo, you are running with graphite, by lubricating the outside surfaces.
Click to expand...

Seems a little too far outside a "graphite only" rule interpretation for me...and my son
 
IIRC Graphite will really start to fall off after 4-6 runs, maybe a couple more. If you can add graphite, do it. Just puff graphite into the wheel bore from the bottom of the car, next to the body and tap the wheel a little while holding the axle head side down. Spin it a little to work it all the way down into the bore. You can also puff a little behind the axle head and spin it a little. This is the best way to do it.
 
Thanks, Kinser. It's bothered me for years that the cars we beat in the heats, beat us in the pack championships.

Here's to ending that streak.
cool
 
Nope. To my knowledge, that has not been allowed. Once the cars are checked in, they've stayed that way. Which is why I've wondered about how those other cars got faster and mine have slowed.

I talked with one of the Dad's, whose son's car lost to us in the den, but beat us in the finals. He said that he would pack the bore with graphite, then carefully insert the nail through it, then attach to the body.

This year, instead of Hob-E-Lube, I picked up the XLR8 graphite w/ the needle. I should be able to puff (and pack?) graphite into the bore and groove/channel and get some more runs out of it. I'll be doing a little experimentation during the test runs the night before to see if one way makes a difference over another.
 
[font="times new roman, times, serif"]Just an FYI...I purchased some of that XLR8 a couple years ago and while using it we figured out that our spins were slowing down. We went back to Hob-e-Lube and our wheel spins got faster...a lot faster. So what we did was dump the XLR8 and put the Hob-e Lube into that bottle with the needle which made it a lot easier to get the graphite where I wanted it, made it a little less messy too.[/font]
 
To apply graphite I cut a straw on an angle. Put some graphite into the scoop that is created and then direct the graphite wherever I want it to go. The graphite flows down the scoop and goes where you want it to go. Spin the wheel as required.
 
zeezop said:
To apply graphite I cut a straw on an angle. Put some graphite into the scoop that is created and then direct the graphite wherever I want it to go. The graphite flows down the scoop and goes where you want it to go. Spin the wheel as required.
Click to expand...
+1
 
No question about it. Zero Friction Graphite lube is the best. During track set up the night before, some kids test ran their cars. Two of them had stock axles and wheels and did very poorly. The next day, I added Zero Friction to their cars right before the race and they won a few heats each. My son won every race in his den and tied for second in his pack with this stuff. I went out and purchased another vial of this for the District race in April. Of course, when asked about what graphite we were using, I was less than open. LOL
 
curtas in what way was the graphite better? what were you using before to compare it against? what was your time increase? Just trying to getter a better idea as what to use seeing as all youth races will not allow oil on the track.

Jim
 
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