Raising Expectations!

PxTx

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Jan 9, 2012
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I only really get involved with Scout PWD and this is why I do it.

Over the summer I got together with some of my old school buddies and we don't get together as often as we like. Somehow PWD comes up and my friend Dave tells me the car they built did rather poorly. His son comes over and talks about the event, but is shy. When Dave asked his son if he wanted to build a faster car, and that I knew some tricks to help- the excitement on his son's face and twinkle in his eye was priceless!

I should have followed up sooner, but on New Years Eve I called Dave. Long story short, the race is Jan 11 an he is pressed for time. I told he I feel I need to deliver on my part, but I would only aid in the build. He said the only real time he had was that afternoon/evening. So Dave drives the 2 hrs down and we head over to my Dad's and set up the track and start on it.

Our saving grace was that I had bought 3 of John's complete kits for some other friends. So we get to peeping 1 wheel and 1 axle etc so he could get the experience from scratch. We then stepped up to race prepping John's equipment. Then I showed him the types of weight I had. The Tungsten cubes worked perfectly!

So the both have a much better appreciation for the design, prep and overall build of a winning PWD. I set expectations that the car will be far from the finishes that they did last year, and to expect at least a few wins. I love seeing the excitement in the kids faces! The smaller ones are my kids, but they wanted to hold the car in some pics since they would not see the car race.
 
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Unbeatable smiles and the races will be so much more Xciting!! Way to go!!!/images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif
 
Well instead of starting a new thread I figure, I will just add to this one. I just finished up my first ever PWD workshop for my son's PACK. It was a super hit, we had over 15 scouts coming in from 1:00pm -5:00pm. There was axle sanding, hub prepping, wood cutting, weight adjust and a little bit of tuning. All and All it was a great workshop and the smiles on each kids face spoke volumes of how successful it was.

And no lie boys, even my wife was impress with my organization and willingness to help the other scout families. Its a good feeling helping others.
Also want to thank my inspiration for the workshop (BIG KUDOS 5kids) you rock.
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Went to our test/tune day. The first run with the white car we broke a wheel hub. It was a Plug and play kit with the super light wheels. Don't recall the name but we learned quickly they don't stand up to the harsh stops of running into a foam pad. Had our batman car covered by at least a car length.

Now my kids are too young, but our friends are very involved so we get an invitation to run each year. The Batman car is another more conservative POP kit, but with SS axles. I did all the wheel bore and axle prep on all cars. Batman couldn't be caught today. Only a few saw the White car run. Batman kept running and winning. Even some parents started to "joke" that the car might have to get checked to make sure it was legal.

The Robin car we built. Drilled a kit block with The Silver Bullet with 3 wheels touching. Grooved kit axles, then polished them. Kit axles are an awful place to start! Took 4 known good wheel molds and only preped the wheel bore- nothing else. Robin was only beat by Batman today and never more than a car length. My kids liked adding the weight to Robin. Said they were installing an engine!
 
Good looking group of cars.

Mishaps can happen. Take the NDFW and move it into the broken wheel position, super glue the broken wheel and put it back on in the NDFW position. Just a thought.
 
Thanks for the kind words. Ametur stuff here but I enjoy it a bunch.

Yes, I was gonna throw a stock wheel on but your idea is better. The POP kit had the axles going in tighter than I would like. Any tricks to removing tight axles with delicate wheels? Any trick tools?
 
Haven't tried the fishing line trick yet, it may be the best non-destructive method. To avoid stuck axles in the future, John (DD4H) started a thread on using a .0915" reamer to relieve the holes for an easier fit. I typically slot the axle head, K-House groove, to aid in removal of tight axles by twisting as pressure is applied. They come out fairly easy this way, but it can still cause wheel breakage if not careful. I just placed an order for a reamer to hopefully eliminate the task of hard axle removal in the future.
 
My saving grace was the fact there were slots cut below the drilled axle holes on John's block I bought. Was able to use a hack saw blade and push the axle out. Did the switch and ran a stock wheel on the lifted axle.

Now here is the excitement... All 3 cars I brought were sub 3 second cars! I'm posting vids, so straighten me out if this is not comparable to the tracks you guys run where sub 3 is respectible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeHB6Pr0wcI&feature=youtube_gdata_player