Ive got my cars tuning consistantly, now if I only knew how much steer to put in them. I have read that you will know you have it right by the sound the wheels make, I can hear a different tone with different amounts of steer but I dont know what im listening for. Man I cant wait to get me a track!
Using A Tuning Board
- Thread starter Ryanh
- Start date
So are these tuning boards available commercially or is it much cheaper to make one out of smooth wood or formica or some other material? I'm new too obviously but find my son to continue to be excited about derby racing even after a disappointing first showing so I'm trying to learn as much as possible so we can add a much bigger trophy to the shelf next year /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif
- Nov 24, 2011
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I don't know of anyone that sells them. They're pretty much custom one off's. Glass works best, it's much smoother. I've seen one made of granite.
The curved lines really don't have a purpose other than to make the table look professional. You can make a tuning board out of anything like Opa described. What you want in a tuning table is a surface that remains consistent from day to day, month to month. I don't even buy into the idea that it has to be perfectly leveled side to side or have some certain slope. It just has to be consistent so you know where you were last month and what worked and what didn't. You do want your board to be flat though, you don't want a big dip or bump in the middle for example. The longer your table is the finer the adjustments you can make. The surface of the table is important so you can hear your car roll. If you have a wood surface you will not be able to hear a wheel that has a piece of plastic that was left by the lathe, or a nick in the wheel edge. If you have a glass top you will be able to hear everthing. I have a plexiglass top and it works fine, but it also scratches. I should have used glass.
Quicktime is right about the starting position... I draw lines at the starting position so I can line up the car when it is staged on the table. I usually stage each car with the DFW on the "0" mark and then line the body up with one of my lines. Sometimes I have to line up the rear wheels, it kinda depends on the car body style. Is the car lined up perfectly straight down the "0" line? No, probably not, but I don't really care as long as I can repeat my placement at the starting position everytime.
Sogone is right about the DFW and how it is positioned. You can play around with how the DFW is positioned at the starting position and then see what it does when the car starts to move. Sometimes it does some pretty strange things.
Quicktime is right about the starting position... I draw lines at the starting position so I can line up the car when it is staged on the table. I usually stage each car with the DFW on the "0" mark and then line the body up with one of my lines. Sometimes I have to line up the rear wheels, it kinda depends on the car body style. Is the car lined up perfectly straight down the "0" line? No, probably not, but I don't really care as long as I can repeat my placement at the starting position everytime.
Sogone is right about the DFW and how it is positioned. You can play around with how the DFW is positioned at the starting position and then see what it does when the car starts to move. Sometimes it does some pretty strange things.
I like the look of the boards with the arched lines. If someone could send me the file with that attached I may be able to get some stick on surfaces made that could be stuck on just about any size plastic table. Our football and baseball booster clubs sold tables last year that had the field markers, team logo, etc on the tables for football and are working on one with a baseball field, positions, and logo on a round table for the baseball team. I didn't purchase one but I will see if I could get a picture of it for you guys to look at. Then inquire about the cost of the printed stick-on if anyone is interested.
[font="times new roman, times, serif"]FYI I had priced something similar for myself and around here they wanted $300. I said "You can keep it." !!!
A $5.00 mirror from the dollar store and a $1.99 for a 4 pack of sharpies is a bit more in my price range...Keep us posted though.[/font]
If some one has a pdf file of one can they email it to me. I got to talk to a sister in law about designing one.
- Nov 24, 2011
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36racin said:
Stick on's won't work. You want the surface smooth and clean. It would work on the bottm of a piece of glass.
P.S. It's really nice to have you here 5 Kids!
I went to 5kids for the free download on the tuning board. sent it to kinkos I got the following the small scout tuning is $2.25 to print and $9 to laminate. A total of $11.25 plus taxes. The poster that is 30X60" (4 feet) is $9.75 plus $39 to laminate. A total of $48.75 plus taxes. I called it the cut line 2 72" is $64 again laminated (5 feet). All black and white.
Working on my Tuning Table. It’s a laminated table top I got out of the trash and started marking up with painters tape and sharpies.
I plan on waxing the top with Pledge to make it slicker (bad idea ? ? ?).
Top is just slightly under 5’ feet so my tuning will be based on “X” inches over 4’ feet. I plan to add a 12” Track Center Rail of some sort to help line up the cars consistently on center as I’ve noticed Proxy Cars tend to get lined up On Center.
Couple of things I have questions on use are ...
One:
On a fat wheel car I assume the outer edge would align with the Zero mark .. correct?
I tend to use Razor wheels but I thinking the table needs to be designed for Fat Wheel or the difference in wheel width would make the steer readying off by the width of the wheel (1/4 roughly).
Two:
Is the 4’ foot distance of travel measured from the nose of the car or the tail? There’s a 7” difference there and I’m not sure or seen anything on that.
Three:
Table Rise ... I see some people doing 1.5 inch others doing 3.5 inch ... thinking the faster roll would be more like being on the track speed wise and get the wheels to show issues more. True ?
Four:
So far I’ve read Steer amounts from 1” to “5 over 4’
So I’m lost at what is best for what wheel type over a 4’ foot board for cars run mainly on League tracks.
I tend to run Razor wheels, but not on all cars.
Five:
I’m thinking that a Razor wheel car might benefit from less steer that a fat tire car. Yes , No ?
Thoughts please.
I plan on waxing the top with Pledge to make it slicker (bad idea ? ? ?).
Top is just slightly under 5’ feet so my tuning will be based on “X” inches over 4’ feet. I plan to add a 12” Track Center Rail of some sort to help line up the cars consistently on center as I’ve noticed Proxy Cars tend to get lined up On Center.
Couple of things I have questions on use are ...
One:
On a fat wheel car I assume the outer edge would align with the Zero mark .. correct?
I tend to use Razor wheels but I thinking the table needs to be designed for Fat Wheel or the difference in wheel width would make the steer readying off by the width of the wheel (1/4 roughly).
Two:
Is the 4’ foot distance of travel measured from the nose of the car or the tail? There’s a 7” difference there and I’m not sure or seen anything on that.
Three:
Table Rise ... I see some people doing 1.5 inch others doing 3.5 inch ... thinking the faster roll would be more like being on the track speed wise and get the wheels to show issues more. True ?
Four:
So far I’ve read Steer amounts from 1” to “5 over 4’
So I’m lost at what is best for what wheel type over a 4’ foot board for cars run mainly on League tracks.
I tend to run Razor wheels, but not on all cars.
Five:
I’m thinking that a Razor wheel car might benefit from less steer that a fat tire car. Yes , No ?
Thoughts please.
Attachments
If you align your zero off the inner edge of a fat wheel then you do not have a problem when you roll a razor wheel car down your board.
My table is about a half inch higher at the start. If you get it too steep you might find the car will skid. As long as you keep it at the same angle every time you set it up ( or, better, just never take it down) you should be ok.
12" is short for a center guide but since that's all you have room for on a 5' table it'll have to work. 17-18" would be better. The wheels probably won't have enough roll out to come fully set before it's off the end of the guide. It'll be close enough.
I measure drift from the inner edge of the DFW, so wherever the inner edge lines up at the 4' mark is where I call it.
How much drift to use really just depends on the car itself. Some cars are fine at 1 1/2", some need 8". Typically, a bearing razor car needs the least, a short wheelbase fat wheel car needs the most but it's a tuning variable. If in doubt, I would recommend that you go heavier since "oversteering" only costs you a few thousandths, too little drift will cost you tens of thousandths.
My razor wheel cars without bearings like more drift than my razor wheel cars with bearings. My Eliminator runs around 4.5-5", I tried it at 3.5" for Nationals in Omaha last month just to see how close to the edge it was, watch the video if you want to see what a drift fail looks like. It ended up on the wrong side of the edge. LOL
My table is about a half inch higher at the start. If you get it too steep you might find the car will skid. As long as you keep it at the same angle every time you set it up ( or, better, just never take it down) you should be ok.
12" is short for a center guide but since that's all you have room for on a 5' table it'll have to work. 17-18" would be better. The wheels probably won't have enough roll out to come fully set before it's off the end of the guide. It'll be close enough.
I measure drift from the inner edge of the DFW, so wherever the inner edge lines up at the 4' mark is where I call it.
How much drift to use really just depends on the car itself. Some cars are fine at 1 1/2", some need 8". Typically, a bearing razor car needs the least, a short wheelbase fat wheel car needs the most but it's a tuning variable. If in doubt, I would recommend that you go heavier since "oversteering" only costs you a few thousandths, too little drift will cost you tens of thousandths.
My razor wheel cars without bearings like more drift than my razor wheel cars with bearings. My Eliminator runs around 4.5-5", I tried it at 3.5" for Nationals in Omaha last month just to see how close to the edge it was, watch the video if you want to see what a drift fail looks like. It ended up on the wrong side of the edge. LOL
Thanks for the help.
I need to set it up for Fat Wheels and Razor as I run two classes.
So I'm thinking design the board (rail placement) for Fat wheel spacing to get outer edge on zero, the for razors just subtract the 1/4 difference in the readings ... other wise the Fat wheel would run on the tape ... make sense?
I don't think it makes any difference how you set it up? As long as you are NOT trying to compare steer numbers against someone else's board, then whatever number you use are only for your reference as to how the car handles and runs. Besides, I think that comparing steer numbers to someone else's board can be problematic enough. Their angle may be different. Their coefficient of friction on the running surface may be different. Theirs may or may not be leveled from side to side.
...make sense?
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Not so much comparing my numbers to anyone, more about being able to tune my own assortment of car/wheel types without needing to reposition the center rail.
Other people's steer numbers are just to get a starting point for a particular style car/wheel combo.
Thanks for the input, everything helps
It just accrued to me that I could get a 18" piece of Best Track and attach it to the starting end of my board which would effectively make it 18" longer and the wheels would "set".
I didn't see that you had a picture of the table loaded when I was surfing on my phone. Good thing that you're not going to compare steer numbers with anyone else, you'd also need to compensate for your inch marks being in a straight line and perpendicular to the edge of the table.
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