only one side of axle is notching in a dremel... ???

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Hey guys... so I am trying to notch out axles in order to have a smaller friction area in the wheel hub. I tried it on a drill and also on a dremel. For some reason I get the same result... its notching only one side... as if the axles was not rotating but only going back and forth which I know is not the case. But for what ever reason the notching affect is not going all the way around the axle. Has anyone ever run into this phenomenon?

Now I have to have my kids cars ready soon and am out of spare axles to try this on so it's do it right this next try or don't notch at all.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Jimmy

 

[bracketracer]

First though is to skip the notching.

Only reason I can think of for it only notching on one side is that your notching tool of choice is getting bounced clear of the axle as it spins so it's skipping part of the shaft. None of the U.S. made BSA axles are round so it's not surprising.

 

[davet]

We were successful doing this but only after much trial and error at the drill press.

1) When we did it we used the drill press. We put a 1/4" bit in the chuck and squared the table on both axis' with a known straight edge against the bit. We used 1/4" because it didn't flex.
2) Once it's square, chuck up the axle. Put the axle in as far as you can to prevent it from bending while pulling the file into it. Lay an 1/8" thick file on the table and raise the table until the edge of that file lays against all 3 crimp marks at one time and tighten the table there. Recheck the file because we found when tightening the table lock, the table would drop enough to miss one crimp.
3) Turn on drill press and slowly pull the file into the axle. In that first few seconds of light contact you'll see if the file is contacting the axle squarely.
4) Pull the file into the side of the axle and the front or rear of the axle. This helps negate negative effect of a very slightly off- level table.
5) We've found that if the axle isn't perfectly square to the table/file that we would get wheel wobble or buzzing or vibration when spinning the wheel on the axle.

As was already mentioned, the stock axles are oblong. If you're trying to freehand the file against the spinning axle it will end up accentuating the out of roundness. If not using a lot of pressure with the file you may be seeing only the high sides getting cut. I would not try to make this groove without a drillpress.

**** This is how ours would turn out and were very smooth and quiet. We run oil.

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Thx guys. Since this is all by hand I am skipping the notching. I might cone the head a bit as that worked out some but that's it.

It's so awesome how quickly responses come here. Very thankful for you all and such a great resource. Next year I will take more time before hand to really get all the speed tricks done. That's it for these races though. Going to get these wheels on, get the cars tracking right and call it a day. Will try next year for super speed demons. Actually, since our church bought their own track this year I will be pushing for more than one race a year. How about quarterly.

 

[3171scott]

Sounds like your axle is bent. You should be able to put a grove in your axle while its chucked in a drill or dremel. Your not bending your axles first are you?

 

[Veterans Freedom Center]

First though is to skip the notching.

Only reason I can think of for it only notching on one side is that your notching tool of choice is getting bounced clear of the axle as it spins so it's skipping part of the shaft. None of the U.S. made BSA axles are round so it's not surprising.

I have had that happen also

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Sounds like your axle is bent. You should be able to put a grove in your axle while its chucked in a drill or dremel. Your not bending your axles first are you?

Nope, I am only bending the DFW and only after sanding and polishing. I also spun the dremel with the axles in to check to see if it had any wobble. With them spinning it looked like the shafts were not even moving. The heads you could see the wobble since they are not centered on the axle well but it was obvious the axles themselves are straight.
The crazy thing is that when the file was held to the axle there was no major bouncing and it all felt pretty smooth. Weird... I'm still learning. Was hoping a drill press would fall out of the sky but no such luck.

 

[3171scott]

Try chucking the axle in your drill and lay flat on a table. Use the dremel with a cut off wheel and spin the axle and use the dremel at the same time. Be careful to not go to deep with your cut. This is half the fun of building is figuring out issues. Good Luck

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Thx Scott for the creative idea but considering I hope to have the cars done by Monday and no spare axles I will call it a day on the axles for this race.

 

[3171scott]

Good Luck and let everyone know how things go!

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Hey thx! I will. Race day is Saturday. Pit Night is tomorrow night. My daughter wants to go to paint her so her body got its fenders tonight and i'll have to bring paint home to finish it cuz after the weight is added there will be body changes required to smooth it out. I'll attach a couple pics. I can't afford the tungsten weights so I have to use the typical cheapo big weights which will do just fine I think. Issue is the LHS only had onse set left. If the other store further away doesn't have any I will have to break the piggy bank and get tungsten for my son. Either way their cars look cool. I never did fenders before and it was pretty fun.

First time uploading pics here. Here goes nuthin!

I'll post after the race the results.

 

[davet]

Great pics. I think it looks awesome even without paint. Good luck!

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Hey thx man. here's a pic with her brothers unfinished

beast.

 

[davet]

They look fast just sitting there. Kind of like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris standing back to back in the middle of a bar fight...you know they beat all comers.

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

oh yeah!!!! Bruce & Chuck... that would be awesome indeed.

I was so tempted to send the pic of them both to the Awana director and title it "Something Wicked This Way Comes" but I don't want to tip them off to my antics. It's bad enough they'll see my daughters tomorrow night as it is. lol

 

[davet]

oh yeah!!!! Bruce & Chuck... that would be awesome indeed.

I was so tempted to send the pic of them both to the Awana director and title it "Something Wicked This Way Comes" but I don't want to tip them off to my antics. It's bad enough they'll see my daughters tomorrow night as it is. lol

Yeah, you hate to show them too early. A few yrs ago our Den leader got us all together to ride snowmobiles and to work on derby cars in his shop. Up until that year he had been the fastest. We were the only ones that didn't bring our car. When asked what we were building we just made it sound like nothing special, "oh you know, American flag with a bald eagle on top, some BSA letters cut of it , big side fenders"

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Holy Cuh-Rap!!! That is one fine looking car! Was that a wrap or airbrush?
How did it run?

 

[davet]

Holy Cuh-Rap!!! That is one fine looking car! Was that a wrap or airbrush?
How did it run?

District record and 7th at NSC Council race all on stock axles and wheels. Bent axles and all. My boy just recently took it off the shelf after 3 yrs of collecting dust, gave it to a friend to borrow (study). For fun they ran it at their Pack race and it set their record. No reprep. Just dusted the top off. Good wheel bore/axle prep with advice from the guys here.

It's a Google Images photo epoxied on then clear coated over. The cover hides lots of router mistakes. You can see under the "A" where my boy was touching up some knicks with a red marker and it got a way from him.

The next year we told them we were building an aircraft carrier car with planes on top and a launch deck. District record and 4th at NSC Council. Tuned on the kitchen table as you can see our makeshift tuning board (er...kitchen table) in the pic.

 

[jatofau1]

District record and 7th at NSC Council race all on stock axles and wheels. Bent axles and all. My boy just recently took it off the shelf after 3 yrs of collecting dust, gave it to a friend to borrow (study). For fun they ran it at their Pack race and it set their record. No reprep. Just dusted the top off. Good wheel bore/axle prep with advice from the guys here.

It's a Google Images photo epoxied on then clear coated over. The cover hides lots of router mistakes. You can see under the "A" where my boy was touching up some knicks with a red marker and it got a way from him.

The next year we told them we were building an aircraft carrier car with planes on top and a launch deck. District record and 4th at NSC Council. Tuned on the kitchen table as you can see our makeshift tuning board (er...kitchen table) in the pic.

Nice design. I wanted to build one just like that.

 

[davet]

Lots of cool ideas by looking at different pics for a cover.