Good morning all! So this is my first post, although I have been lurking around the various PWD fora for a year or so. I recently tried to make the jump to oil, and was not very pleased with the results. I'm sure the problem is my process, so I was hoping to get some advice from the pros.
First, and probably most importantly, I should let you know that we are racing in Royal Rangers, so the specs for the car are different. We can have a maximum of 6 oz. (170g), a total length of 7-1/2", and the cars use a wooden dowel and screws rather than nails for the axles.
We are racing a total of three cars, (mine, my wife's and my son's). The first 2 races (outpost and sectional) we ran with graphite. Although we were in the top three slots in each race, I wanted to get that extra bit of speed for division.
After reading through a lot of posts about oil and wax, I decided to try that combination. I prepared new wheels, polished the bores and then used a small Q-tip (Tamiya makes some that just fit inside the bores) to apply Meguiars TechWax. I warmed the wheel before applying the wax and afterward to let the wax dry. I then inserted a clean Q-tip and gently rotated the wheel to buff the wax lightly. I let the wax dry overnight before any other steps.
The screws (axles) were polished down to 12000 grit (micromesh) and then polished with Blue Magic. After cleaning with alcohol, I sprayed the screws with Sailkote. The screws were placed upright in a stand to allow the lube to drip down the shaft and allowed to dry. I then buffed the screws with a clean cloth to remove the white film.
I placed the wheels onto the screws, mounted them on the body and did my alignment. I placed 2 drops of Krytox on each screw, let it drip down into the bore and spun the wheels for about 15 second with compressed air.
My son placed first in his class and I placed second, but my wife placed 7th. While that was not too bad overall, we were running no better than the graphite cars, and worse in some cases. Yesterday, I took the wheels off and inspected them. The bores were full of what looked like debris. I am assuming that the wax came off the bore and became a contaminant. I have repolished the bores and screws (we have the district finals in 2 weeks).
Another man in our outpost is running Krytox on his cars, and his times were at least .7 seconds faster than ours. So I know that Krytox can improve our times. Should I forget about the wax an run straight Krytox? Should I not treat the axles? Any suggestions?
After reading everything here, I am tempted to make a BSA-style race and race in the league just to see what I can learn!
First, and probably most importantly, I should let you know that we are racing in Royal Rangers, so the specs for the car are different. We can have a maximum of 6 oz. (170g), a total length of 7-1/2", and the cars use a wooden dowel and screws rather than nails for the axles.
We are racing a total of three cars, (mine, my wife's and my son's). The first 2 races (outpost and sectional) we ran with graphite. Although we were in the top three slots in each race, I wanted to get that extra bit of speed for division.
After reading through a lot of posts about oil and wax, I decided to try that combination. I prepared new wheels, polished the bores and then used a small Q-tip (Tamiya makes some that just fit inside the bores) to apply Meguiars TechWax. I warmed the wheel before applying the wax and afterward to let the wax dry. I then inserted a clean Q-tip and gently rotated the wheel to buff the wax lightly. I let the wax dry overnight before any other steps.
The screws (axles) were polished down to 12000 grit (micromesh) and then polished with Blue Magic. After cleaning with alcohol, I sprayed the screws with Sailkote. The screws were placed upright in a stand to allow the lube to drip down the shaft and allowed to dry. I then buffed the screws with a clean cloth to remove the white film.
I placed the wheels onto the screws, mounted them on the body and did my alignment. I placed 2 drops of Krytox on each screw, let it drip down into the bore and spun the wheels for about 15 second with compressed air.
My son placed first in his class and I placed second, but my wife placed 7th. While that was not too bad overall, we were running no better than the graphite cars, and worse in some cases. Yesterday, I took the wheels off and inspected them. The bores were full of what looked like debris. I am assuming that the wax came off the bore and became a contaminant. I have repolished the bores and screws (we have the district finals in 2 weeks).
Another man in our outpost is running Krytox on his cars, and his times were at least .7 seconds faster than ours. So I know that Krytox can improve our times. Should I forget about the wax an run straight Krytox? Should I not treat the axles? Any suggestions?
After reading everything here, I am tempted to make a BSA-style race and race in the league just to see what I can learn!
