New Products
Pinewood Derby Wheel Gauge
Oct
Pinewood Derby Wheel Gauge
Well going to bring back a fan favorite pinewood derby tool – Pinewood Derby Wheel Gauge . It measures 2 things with two different ranges. First the overall wheel diameter. The second measurement is for wheel width.
It will be made of cast acrylic to bring the costs down. Will laser cut and engrave them which will also save you a few bucks. Also I’m going to show you the proper way to use it. The original way in which you squeeze a wheel in between is the incorrect way to measure a wheel. Especially with weight reduced wheels.
How to use derby wheel gauge for outer diameter
A factory width wheel will not pass through the 1.180″ channel. Any wheel that does, has been altered past factory diameters. Also 1.170 is the given minimum diameter for “worked” wheels. If a wheel passes through the 1.170″ portion, then it fails.
The proper way is to simply “wand” the Pinewood Derby Wheel Gauge over a wheel. If the wheel is smaller than the selected diameter, the wheel will pass through without issues. If the wheel does not pass through then that means the wheel is LARGER than the selected diameters. When you try an force the tool on the wheel, weight reduced wheels have enough “give / flex” in them to actually be squeezed inside measurement thus making them fail the inspection. Improper use of the tool is why the wheel failed, not because the wheel failed.
How to use wheel gauge for wheel width
This is used to determine if too much material has been removed while “truing” the edge of the wheel for concentric and for a reduction in surface area to reduce friction. A near factory width wheel will not sit flush into the .320″ portion of the wheel and will not pull out of the .360″ portion of the wheel once inserted. if it does pull out, then it is less than the factory dimensions.
This wheel gauge is the preferred measuring guide even vs very expensive calipers for the same reason. The simply squeezing of calipers will cause incorrect measurements of weight reduced wheels.
Will get them into amazon as soon as I can so that you can get free shipping through prime.
