nerdy derby build 04

I roughed out some axle mounts and axles for the nerdy derby car a week ago. I mounted these to the flat chassis plate and mocked up the wheels (minus any bearings). I had put the two die formed copper sections together with the chassis plate, but the car had a funny stance and the wheels looked too small. Rather than make larger wheels, I decided that I liked the car flipped over with the bottom belly section on top. I've decided to run it like this, as it just looks better. I'll probably still fit the canopy section. I have a little over 1/4" of ground clearance, so I should be good to run. I'll now disassemble everything, fine tune the axle blocks, finish the inner sections of the wheels, finish turn and narrow the wheels, and fit the bearings. I'll also decide on a finish for the copper.

charles: nerdy derby

Charles and Michael came up to the studio two weekends ago for a nerdy nerdy build-day. We had a great time talking about ideas, doing some drawings, and tweaking some parts. Towards the end of the day, I asked Charles if he would want to cut out one of his designs. We modeled the body of his car in Rhino and then pulled out some stock and got to work cutting it out. I think we did all of this in the last two hours of the day, but it was fun to get a few parts made that he can now put together at home. Also, it was fun to get together before school started back up. I always enjoy chatting with these two guys because they have such a wide range of interests and they're both super smart! I can always count on an interesting and lighthearted dialog when their around. Good people!

Charles did a blog post about the day.

nerdy derby build 03

I pressed the other half of the body today. I also pressed the canopy deeper. I trimmed the flanges on both pieces quickly today before I headed home, so I still have some trimming to do before it will get soldered to the top body piece. I threw the wheels up there just to get a sense of how things were going to look. I'll start on axles and play with the system that will allow for the wheelbase to be slightly adjustable. I'm anxious to see the body suspended between those wheels; It should look pretty cool. Charles and Michael are coming over for a "derby work day", so maybe I can get it put together then. Can't wait to see what they build!

nerdy derby build 02

I roughed out some wheels for the belly tanker today. I designed these to be simple and fast to cut out. Of course I got impatient while the others were cutting and went to work on the lathe making a mandrel and turning two of the wheels on the backside to thin them out a bit and to give them some form. I made six wheels total, so I can decide if I have time to "dress" up the wheels a bit later on. All of the wheels will get trued and beveled to the track width of a traditional pinewood derby wheel though. I may make a few that are scaled a bit to play with diameter. Mainly just to play with the stance of the belly tanker. I might apply a "big/little" hot rod style to the tanker reminiscent of the 17"/16" combo that I have on my hot rod beetle.

pinewood

Here are some images of the pinewood derby cars that we built when my brother was little. The Batmobile dates the timeframe for sure.