Mod journal: Saving axles from super glue
Summary: This is gonna be a thread about the piss-poor decisions I made for my very first modded race, about 7 months ago. I figure I'd better get this thread out while I'm still a "rookie" so that it's less embarassing. Above all else, I hope somewhere down the line someone else can find this thread and make use of the method I used to save my axles. These were great axles on a poorly built car, so I was very determined to save the axles. This is how I did so.
Context: I used tungsten putty for weight and adhered the axles with loctite "gel" super glue. My reasonings for these choices were: I thought I could get a lower CG with malleable putty (I could... technically), and at the time of my first build I thought the main problem with regular super glue was that it'll be runny down your axle. I have since realized that JB Kwik is so desirable for weights/axles because it can be easily removed, rendering your weights and axles more reusable. As a quick note, DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE SUPER GLUE FROM AN AXLE WITH ACETONE. You will not be able to prevent it from running down your axle away from the super glue, which in my experience ended up melting some of the plastic in the wheel bore, totally ruining how well the wheel spins. To remove super glue, you must hack away at it.
The Car:
Entered into MCM American Muscle, qualified 19th overall. Did not advance past the first round. Proved to be more adept at finding "shortcuts" than winning races. Granted, it was my very first race and I had to somehow compete against BlueLine and R-Lo -- but still it wasn't an impressive performance.
Observe, the only thing this car accomplished: discovering a "shortcut" at Red Rock Raceway (skip to 3:30)
Link to the lap I discovered a "shortcut" at Red Rock Raceway
The Process:
Car's internals. Behold and bewilder, at how horrid it is. Tried to use the interior plastic (sans seats) to reduce how much the putty "crept" towards the wheels. Also tried to use scotch tape and some random plastic as barriers between axles and putty. Both barely helped.
Step 1: I started by taking a mini-hacksaw to amputate the sections of the car that contained the axles from the section that contains the putty. This serves 2 purposes: removing the possibility that the tungsten "creeps" to the wheels/axles and permanently ruins them--but it also makes the next step possible.
Step 2: Use mini- hacksaw to cut these sections in half from the back (and probably cut a bit of meat off your fingers, too--be careful). You might have to come in from the front/back as well to totally cut it in half without cutting the axle. After this step, the only thing connecting the 2 parts of the chassis is the super glue gel holding the axle down.
Step 3: Then you twist the chassis like so. This allows you to have easier access with cutting pliers to the cross-section in the middle of the lump of adhesive. With some luck, the super glue gel is brittle enough that cutting them on both ends frees the axle. Cut them vertically, if that wasn't clear already. You can try to skip to this step without giving yourself the cross-section and pain with the mini-hacksaw, but it really isn't easy--trust me, I tried.
Step 4: Taadaa, your axles are free. I blasted them with compressed air to try to get rid of any potential FOD from plastic shavings or dried super glue crumbs. It's inevitable the speed of these axles gets reduced ever so slightly by FOD in this process, but at least they live to race another day--without putty or super glue ruining them.
Bonus rage bait--what putty creep looks like when it ruins your wheels. It seeps out through the sides between the body/chassis to "grab" the wheels, more often than not.
Fin: I hope this helps someone else down the line. If not as a tutorial, at least as a warning. Needless to say, tungsten putty and Loctite super glue gel will no longer be used by me in the future. They have already been phased out of my builds that are yet to race @ EPvideos Spectraflame, Boss Champ GT, MCM Builder's Open, etc. in favor of JB Kwik and solid weights.
I still think there may be some way to wrap tungsten putty in cling wrap or some other plastic to keep it from moving where you don't want it to, but I won't be the one to put in effort to discover some method of doing so. I'm too tired of it already. And the benefit of slightly lower CG in diecast racing is probably negligible, anyways. You would probably be better suited trying to frankenstein a color shifters metal chassis into your build if you care about CG
Discussion
Great thread! we all should post our failures!
and how we tried to fix them, too
seems you were very successful!
my first cars were more goo balls, and they sucked
I never used putty, tungstun 1/8 balls (add weight) and jb weld
could never avoid jb on something/where it was not supposed to be, axles, wheels, even the bench, my arm, the keyboard......
arrgghhh the mouse!!...lol
this is exactly why I went to precision machine work
"quik v eternal" the paradox of jd
1. quik: cure fast, removes, and moves/removes it's self under stress
2. perm jd: you will destroy both pieces (and possibly your own extremities) removing it
low temp diecast staysout and replaceable axles, and screws
makes for Resurrection cars
dr
- Lol, that's true! I wear gloves when doing JB weld for that same reason. Will be interesting to see how your methods for screwing down axles develops over time — ConMan_Customs
- there is not enough room on this site for my poor decisions! lol But I stand by every one of them as part of my learning curve! — Stoopid_Fish_Racing
- I stopped drilling and tapping for a while and used E6000 to seal my cars. Now I'm 100% back to drilling and tapping. Recycle/upcycle them builds! — FeralPatrick
You're a bit of a POET, ConMan! Thumbs up for a terrific read!
Great time to post about this early on in your racing career. Like I've said to hosts, never cringe at your early stuff because you needed to do that before you got to accomplish all the great you're doing now
In the words of Jake the Dog, "Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards NOT sucking at something."
- Thanks for the wise words as always, Chris! Yeah, it didn’t matter that I read advice on avoiding putty and using specific epoxy for adhesive—I think I just really needed to personally make mistakes for the lessons to sink in for me. For what it’s worth, after I went back to the drawing board, the v2 currently running at the MCM Open seems to be doing pretty good… fingers crossed! — ConMan_Customs
I used superglue gel when I first began, too. Likely because I watched customizers' videos when I began, not racer builders. I had two cars have the front axle detatch from the chassis. Once during an actual race. The other was my 2nd car for KotM before it had a chance for time trials. Never again. E6000 all the way.
Putty. The brand matters. I tried a few and most have the consistency of chewed taffy. But one has been dependable for me thus far - Reaction Tackle. Anyway, even though it works the best, you still have to be mindful of how and where to apply. And I will sometimes use UV resin to make a 'shell' around it if need be. Test fit over and over. Let your car sit for a couple of days. Heat your putty up with a hair dryer or set in the sun to see if it melts. Or just roll up a ball of it and set it on your work bench for a few hours to see if it melts/travels. But to optimize weight and space, tungsten cube and chip weights are the way to go when possible.
- "Encapsulating" the putty, right on! Melts in the sun, not in your car, like M&Ms — Chris_Hood
- Maybe I will have to try that brand of putty sometime. Thanks for the intel. And I'm glad you got to see this post, Patrick! If I recall correct, you're a fellow builder who mostly uses FTE's--so you can probably appreciate the lengths I went to save some FTE axles that were not easy (or cheap) to farm, lol. Still going to work on a polishing process so that that I don't have to be as reliant on NPA but I'm not in a rush to move away from a winning formula! — ConMan_Customs
- Yeah, I use a lot of FTEs because when I began this hobby I bought a ton of them. lol. Plus it saves me the step of polishing and O5SP wheels are lighter than most wheels. — FeralPatrick
- Did you have any favorite FTE castings that provided quality axles more often than other castings? For example I’ve found Shelby GT500 have decent axles more often than not, but they’re too narrow to transplant to most other castings — ConMan_Customs
- Can't say I've ever noticed much of a diference in wheel or axle quality from one FTE casting to another, but the Bully Goat almost always has bad wheels. Same with some of the fantasy castings. I find the overly styled cars often have fenders that rub on the wheels. — FeralPatrick
- Good to know! I’ll avoid those — ConMan_Customs
Yeah I thought tungsten putty was the ticket too. Made slow dogs out of 2 builds......1 of them wouldn't even make it down the track to the finish line.