Post by xpanmanx on Feb 8, 2006 0:10:18 GMT -6
Hi,
My kid's PWD is this Saturday and we're having trouble tweaking the axles. Our rules require use of the stock BSA axles, so, we ordered up a couple of 10-packs from MV and started hacking away.
We're trying to emulate this design, sans the nickle plating:
. We beat on an axle with the press, then stuck it in a Dremel and attacked it with some jewelers files. We used MV's 11-grade 1-micron polishing kit to put a mirror shine on the axle. The results don't really match the photo, our cuts are a little deeper, but the axles seem pretty straight and not at all flimsy. About the only thing we haven't done is soak them in alcohol, but that's coming 
I guess I should tell you about the wheels. They're a matched set of #2s. They've been trued as much as possible, our race rules prohibit lathed wheels. We've drilled 12 9/64" holes in the sidewall, and sanded off the sidewall lettering but we had to leave the rippled edge in place - rules, again. We cleaned up the tread with 220/600/1000 grit but didn't polish it. The hubs have been cleaned up with the Pro Hub and Outer Pro Hub tools. The bores have been polished with the DW kit and the wheels balanced with the magnetic balancer. I think I own stock in DW.
The problem is that, when I hold an axle in my fingers, nail-head pointing downward at about 15-degrees, and spin the wheel, they wobble like I don't know what. They wobble worse if we hold the axles level and use my thumbnail to simulate the hub-to-body clearance. We don't want to put them on the car and test them until the night before the race because we're worried about swedging out the axle holes (done with a Body Tool II).
The wheels seem to roll pretty nicely down the kitchen table, They also look pretty true when spinning on the Dremel.
Are we testing the axles the wrong way? Or did I overthink their design?
Did I put the inner cut in the wrong place...I've got it so that the body-side edge of the inner cut is about 1/16" inside the bore (before the bore begins to step outwards).
What do you guys recommend?
Best regards,
Tim ==
My kid's PWD is this Saturday and we're having trouble tweaking the axles. Our rules require use of the stock BSA axles, so, we ordered up a couple of 10-packs from MV and started hacking away.
We're trying to emulate this design, sans the nickle plating:
. We beat on an axle with the press, then stuck it in a Dremel and attacked it with some jewelers files. We used MV's 11-grade 1-micron polishing kit to put a mirror shine on the axle. The results don't really match the photo, our cuts are a little deeper, but the axles seem pretty straight and not at all flimsy. About the only thing we haven't done is soak them in alcohol, but that's coming 
I guess I should tell you about the wheels. They're a matched set of #2s. They've been trued as much as possible, our race rules prohibit lathed wheels. We've drilled 12 9/64" holes in the sidewall, and sanded off the sidewall lettering but we had to leave the rippled edge in place - rules, again. We cleaned up the tread with 220/600/1000 grit but didn't polish it. The hubs have been cleaned up with the Pro Hub and Outer Pro Hub tools. The bores have been polished with the DW kit and the wheels balanced with the magnetic balancer. I think I own stock in DW.
The problem is that, when I hold an axle in my fingers, nail-head pointing downward at about 15-degrees, and spin the wheel, they wobble like I don't know what. They wobble worse if we hold the axles level and use my thumbnail to simulate the hub-to-body clearance. We don't want to put them on the car and test them until the night before the race because we're worried about swedging out the axle holes (done with a Body Tool II).
The wheels seem to roll pretty nicely down the kitchen table, They also look pretty true when spinning on the Dremel.
Are we testing the axles the wrong way? Or did I overthink their design?
Did I put the inner cut in the wrong place...I've got it so that the body-side edge of the inner cut is about 1/16" inside the bore (before the bore begins to step outwards).
What do you guys recommend?
Best regards,
Tim ==
