Center the weight for balance. The only force acting is gravity and that is toward the center of the earth. You want the axles centered in the wheel and the wheels to be straight in both planes, I wouldn't depend on banging nails through to achieve that. If you have a drill press I would carefully align the car on it's side and bore holes for the axles so the wheels are straight in both axis.
Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bob Kennedy To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 11:24 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] pine wood derby I would leave the wheels centered because there is no need for traction in this race. And they use a scientific scale to measure the cars down here so be careful about adding weights. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lenny McHugh To: Blind Handyman Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 3:51 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] pine wood derby Well I am helping my grandson build his pine wood derby for the Cub Scouts. My question is where is the best place for the weights. Some say over the rear wheels so it can push. Others say over the front wheels so the weight can help pull the car. I thought in the center of the car so there will be even pressure or friction on all wheels. I am a little disappointed with his new pack. For the last three years he designed and made the cars using my hand tools, bit and brace, coping saw, wood rasp and sanding blocks. The other evening one father brought his portable band saw to cut out patterns made by the kids. My grandson still elected to cut out his car using my tools. Some of his cars were a peanut shaped car and last year a dauphin, he used some small biscuits for the fins. This year he is making a car to resemble a stick of TNT.After he rounded over the car he used my forester bits to cut into the front and back where he will make a fuse. The dauphin peanut car won first place in his group and there the weights were centered. I think last year's car is still running down the track. I thought about taking a block of wood and cutting two dado slots that he could use for wheel alignment.The slots could hold the wheels straight until he hammers in the nail axles. Lenny, Please visit my home page http://www.geocities.com/lenny_mchugh/ It's motivating, humorous and has a lot of resources. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
