Pro Axle Press

Redstone Racing said:
Now's the time to buy the silver bullet. It's on sale for only $32.96!
i saw that too!
A deal considering that a few machinist blocks cost that much.
I might buy another one, just to modify it for some funky drill jobs
 
Kinser Racing said:
File the edges of where the point is made on the axle (nail), put it in a dremel and they're pretty straight. Some might not be but most will. Most of those Derby Works tools are there to take your money and trick you into think that they're making you faster.

Correct me if I'm wrong but when you were here last season we tried to help you by telling you not to bend your rear axles. How did that work out? We can help you get faster here if that's what you want. /images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif

Yes Sir. You did tell us not to bend our rears. We had already drilled our block and had it pretty much shaped already when MOFAST led me to this site.

We bent them at 1.5 degrees instead of 2.5 or 3 so it wouldn't be as hard to align. The wheels still moved to the heads quickly and I figured less bend meant less friction against the head. We came in 2nd at Pack, 1st at District and 7th in Council which had 3,176 cars raced in our rank last season. Stock BSA axles, stock wheels, bent rear axles. We re-prepped our wheels and axles after each event so that meant re-aligning the rears each time. The first time we spent about an hour aligning, the second time we spent about 4 hours (Yes, 4 hrs!) and for the Council race about 15 mins.

We'll cant the rear holes this year but with stock axles I foresee some alignment being necessary but hopefully it will be less finicky. The stars aligned just right for us last year so I'll be looking for more advice again this year.
 
Good deal man! Congrats on last years performance. I'd use any axle from DerbyDad4Hire if possible. If you have to use stock axles (There to small IMO) I'd use the ones that come in the Revell wheel and axle pack. They don't need to be worked much because they don't have the crimp marks. File the edges around the point before polishing and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how straight they are. Good luck!
 
I tried 8 of those Revell axles last year. I tried just polishing them and also various grooves then polish. Each of the roughly 20 BSA or Revell wheels I used on them vibrated very badly. Run those same wheels on even an unworked BSA axle and they ran smoother. Not sure what was happening.
 
I made some of the same mistakes last year too. We don't have as big or competitive of a counsel. You can save yourself a lot of that time on alignment using what you know now about drilling canted axles. Your next car should do even better now that you have the chance to start using what has been shared here. Your son made a great run in a large counsel with kids that have dads that race in adult leagues. Not sure what rank their kids are but they are going to be using more of what is shared here from the pro builders and if you want to give them a run you will need to do the same.

davet said:
Kinser Racing said:
File the edges of where the point is made on the axle (nail), put it in a dremel and they're pretty straight. Some might not be but most will. Most of those Derby Works tools are there to take your money and trick you into think that they're making you faster.

Correct me if I'm wrong but when you were here last season we tried to help you by telling you not to bend your rear axles. How did that work out? We can help you get faster here if that's what you want. /images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif

Yes Sir. You did tell us not to bend our rears. We had already drilled our block and had it pretty much shaped already when MOFAST led me to this site.

We bent them at 1.5 degrees instead of 2.5 or 3 so it wouldn't be as hard to align. The wheels still moved to the heads quickly and I figured less bend meant less friction against the head. We came in 2nd at Pack, 1st at District and 7th in Council which had 3,176 cars raced in our rank last season. Stock BSA axles, stock wheels, bent rear axles. We re-prepped our wheels and axles after each event so that meant re-aligning the rears each time. The first time we spent about an hour aligning, the second time we spent about 4 hours (Yes, 4 hrs!) and for the Council race about 15 mins.

We'll cant the rear holes this year but with stock axles I foresee some alignment being necessary but hopefully it will be less finicky. The stars aligned just right for us last year so I'll be looking for more advice again this year.
 
davet said:
We'll cant the rear holes this year but with stock axles I foresee some alignment being necessary but hopefully it will be less finicky. The stars aligned just right for us last year so I'll be looking for more advice again this year.

May I ask why you are using stock axles? The NSC rules allow aftermarket axles. If its a cost issue then I highly recommend the zinc "speed" axles that you can get from a variety of PWD vendors for a song.
 
We're still racing only Cub Scout events. My boy and I build the cars. If I use stock axles I can show him how to set up the drillpress, pick the best axles, straighten the axles, how to groove the axles, then sand and polish. This year we ordered a set of wheels from John. If I could just buy one I would've. We have access this year to an old machinists lathe. We'll try to rig up a way to get the wheels in and see if we can true them up ourselves. I want to see if we can true them up to the same level as the aftermarket stuff.

We know that there's a good chance others are buying aftermarket parts and there is some satisfaction in knowing that we're competitive using lower quality parts but by putting in more time together working on them. If we ran league races then I would have no problem buying better quality stuff. I don't have anything against the guys buying aftermarket parts. I'm off work 3 days a week and my kids are homeschooled so we work on it during his breaks in his school day. It's just my preference to use it as an opportunity to show him how to use the tools. He sees a direct benefit then if/when he does well in races.
 
davet said:
We're still racing only Cub Scout events. My boy and I build the cars. If I use stock axles I can show him how to set up the drillpress, pick the best axles, straighten the axles, how to groove the axles, then sand and polish. This year we ordered a set of wheels from John. If I could just buy one I would've. We have access this year to an old machinists lathe. We'll try to rig up a way to get the wheels in and see if we can true them up ourselves. I want to see if we can true them up to the same level as the aftermarket stuff.

We know that there's a good chance others are buying aftermarket parts and there is some satisfaction in knowing that we're competitive using lower quality parts but by putting in more time together working on them. If we ran league races then I would have no problem buying better quality stuff. I don't have anything against the guys buying aftermarket parts. I'm off work 3 days a week and my kids are homeschooled so we work on it during his breaks in his school day. It's just my preference to use it as an opportunity to show him how to use the tools. He sees a direct benefit then if/when he does well in races.

Sorry ... by NSC I meant Northern Star Council which if I recall correctly, you are part of. If so, your rules allow after market axles.

I get the fact you want to do some work on the axles. For that I would again recommend starting with the zinc speed axles. Or start with awanna axles.
 
I just saw those new rules. I might try the washers. I have to figure out the best way to use them.
 
LightninBoy said:
davet said:
We're still racing only Cub Scout events. My boy and I build the cars. If I use stock axles I can show him how to set up the drillpress, pick the best axles, straighten the axles, how to groove the axles, then sand and polish. This year we ordered a set of wheels from John. If I could just buy one I would've. We have access this year to an old machinists lathe. We'll try to rig up a way to get the wheels in and see if we can true them up ourselves. I want to see if we can true them up to the same level as the aftermarket stuff.

We know that there's a good chance others are buying aftermarket parts and there is some satisfaction in knowing that we're competitive using lower quality parts but by putting in more time together working on them. If we ran league races then I would have no problem buying better quality stuff. I don't have anything against the guys buying aftermarket parts. I'm off work 3 days a week and my kids are homeschooled so we work on it during his breaks in his school day. It's just my preference to use it as an opportunity to show him how to use the tools. He sees a direct benefit then if/when he does well in races.

Sorry ... by NSC I meant Northern Star Council which if I recall correctly, you are part of. If so, your rules allow after market axles.

I get the fact you want to do some work on the axles. For that I would again recommend starting with the zinc speed axles. Or start with awanna axles.
Do you have a link to the zinc speed axles?