Oh-no, wrong Q-tips...which to use?

[TahoeGator]

We were out of town at last year'd scout races, so it's been two years. My boys had planned to do all the polishing tonight (race is Saturday!) and low and behold the Q-tips in their box of pinewood stuff (Studio 35) are too thick to fit in the wheel bores. We had just presumed they were the right ones.

What brand or whatnot to buy from where? I will run out at lunchtime tomorrow and search for, but any suggestions on which work would, or substitutes for, would be greatly appreciated!

(BTW, the new Dremel with the chuck won't go small enough for a nail axle, so that's going back to the store tomorrow in favor of the old model with removable collets...which means it's finish everything tomorrow night...yeah!)

 

[Cam-Car]

I have three different brands that I use.

Wal-Mart brand seem to be the smallest.
Q-Tip brand are medium.
Walgreen's brand are the largest.

The right size will turn without too much resistance and produce a slight squeak when polishing the bore.

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

I still use the walgreen's with no problem. Except the wife has been caught digging into my stash.

 

[Mojo Racing]

Hey Tahoe,

If you like that dremel, you can pick up a set of collet chucks are Lowe's or Home Depot for less than 10 bucks. And they go from very small to large.

I had to get some recently, and it was a very good purchase.

Nevermind... just saw how your new one doesn't have the removable collets.... LOL

 

[5KidsRacing]

You want the stems that are slightly larger than the wheel bore... so they won't fit if you try to push them through dry. When I polish the wheel bores I like to see the stem just about to break off during polishing, that tells me I picked the right stem. I use Walgreens Studio 35 qtips with no problems.... yes a few are too large, you have to weed those out.

 

[TahoeGator]

It is the Walgreen's Studio 35 Q-tips that I have...I was able to get one into a wheel bore with some Novus 2 on it, but with the drill on very slow, the Q-tip started to wind like a rubber band...I wonder if I have the right ones, but that over the 2 years they've been sitting in my shop they've swelled just a tiny bit that's enough to be too tight?

 

[ngyoung]

Yeah you need the polish on the stem to get it through the wheel bore as well as have it turning in the drill. If you're really worried you can sand the stem a little.

5Kids-- One thing I am kind of wondering about going as tight as that is whether the polish is really getting between the stem and the bore. It seems like the polish is mostly getting pushed up the stem as you slowly travel. The stem seems completely dry where the wheel has passed. I usually add more polish behind the wheel when reversing back out. The bores do look a lot smoother but I have been considering using some smaller pointed end qtip swabs I found at the hobby store that look like the head is small enough to fit in the bore to do a quick second pass.

 

[Vitamin K]

I bought some Walgreens Q-tips to use for our Scout races, but come polishing time, they just seemed too tight, and I got nervous. We ended up using a fluffy pipe cleaner instead. Not sure how effective this was at bore polishing, but I figured it couldn't hurt things.

How do I know that a tight-fitting q-tip stem isn't going to enlarge the bores?

 

[5KidsRacing]

I don't think it can significally enlarge the bore.... paper vs. plastic... I think plastic wins. If the q-tip is too large it will break and your wheel is toast. I think that is one of those things that people have said over the years and everybody just keeps repeating.... similar to if your drill press isn't perfect your can't use The Block or the Silver Bullet. I know a couple of fast racers that do step #1 more than once.

 

[Vitamin K]

I'll give it another try, then. Kids have Awana builds coming up (we're using the BSA kits, though), so we've got some more wheel and axle prep to do. Whee.

I don't think it can significally enlarge the bore.... paper vs. plastic... I think plastic wins. If the q-tip is too large it will break and your wheel is toast. I think that is one of those things that people have said over the years and everybody just keeps repeating.... similar to if your drill press isn't perfect your can't use The Block or the Silver Bullet. I know a couple of fast racers that do step #1 more than once.

 

[5KidsRacing]

5Kids-- One thing I am kind of wondering about going as tight as that is whether the polish is really getting between the stem and the bore. It seems like the polish is mostly getting pushed up the stem as you slowly travel. The stem seems completely dry where the wheel has passed. I usually add more polish behind the wheel when reversing back out. The bores do look a lot smoother but I have been considering using some smaller pointed end qtip swabs I found at the hobby store that look like the head is small enough to fit in the bore to do a quick second pass.

I know what you are saying, but here is what I know... I am faster when I do it a certain way. I can use Meguiar's PlastX and the bores are WOW super shiney and my cars are WOW slower...... How it looks doesn't always mean fast or slow. I think people should do it exactly as describes first and get that down and then try new things and see how they compare....

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

Don't let scott fool you about his cars being WOW slower... I dont know that I've ever seen one of scotts car be "slow"

 

[ngyoung]

Yes I still do it as described regardless of my suspicions. If it works for people much faster then me then I'm not going to try to re-invent the wheel.

5Kids-- One thing I am kind of wondering about going as tight as that is whether the polish is really getting between the stem and the bore. It seems like the polish is mostly getting pushed up the stem as you slowly travel. The stem seems completely dry where the wheel has passed. I usually add more polish behind the wheel when reversing back out. The bores do look a lot smoother but I have been considering using some smaller pointed end qtip swabs I found at the hobby store that look like the head is small enough to fit in the bore to do a quick second pass.

I know what you are saying, but here is what I know... I am faster when I do it a certain way. I can use Meguiar's PlastX and the bores are WOW super shiney and my cars are WOW slower...... How it looks doesn't always mean fast or slow. I think people should do it exactly as describes first and get that down and then try new things and see how they compare....