Best Pinewood Derby Graphite

Best Pinewood Derby Graphite is a pure graphite only lube.  Quality graphite with minimal impurities is the key to a winning dry lube.  Plain and simple.   There are a few different theories out there on dry lube. I will simply state facts. Pinewood derby is raced at temperatures of 70-80 ° F. A pinewood derby® car weighs 5 oz. A derby race is a rolling application for a time no more than 4 seconds in length with a top speed of 20 mph.

Pinewood Derby Graphite with ZERO additives is the best graphite dry lube. Graphite’s natural chemistry causes it to stack on top of itself. As you race graphite will come off. Molybdenum (moly) is a single layer lube. When moly comes off during a race you cannot replace it. When graphite comes off during a race you can add more, and it will layer back on. Moly is used when there is high heat & high pressure.

A 4 second race with a 5 oz. rolling pinewood derby car NEVER reaches the needed parameters to get the benefit of an additional additive to graphite such as molybdenum or tungsten. The thresholds are just not present to require an additive to a pure graphite lube for pinewood derby®. In my opinion since these thresholds are never reached, there is zero benefit to adding them to graphite base.

Important Things to Know About Pinewood Graphite

• Particle Size (mesh–large flake to super fine).
• Hardness (does it easily smear, or is there a gritty feeling left).
• Purity (if its not 100%, what is the filler).

Tungsten is harder than graphite, so the addition of tungsten to a graphite blend only adds an abrasive.  Tungsten is harder than your steel axle.  Think about it.  The addition of Moly makes any dry lube compound a single layer lube as you can not stack multiple layers of moly. Anything added to Best Pinewood Derby Graphite makes it slower.

Why would you want a single layer lube to begin with?

Both these additives only become a key part of lubrication under HIGH HEAT or HIGH PRESSURE.
If these elements are not present, moly and tungsten become an abrasive.
Both carry a higher a higher rockwell hardness scale rating than pure graphite.

So why do we want them in our graphite?

Answer : we don’t want them in our lube since there is literally no stress in a 5 oz gravity fed rolling application.

Plain and simple. Look at the science. Do the math.

• Pure Pinewood Derby Graphite is the key to a winning lube.
• Stacking layers of lube during a proper break in process that can shed away with friction with each race.
• How many times will your scout’s car race during a single event?
• If you want the fastest first race car, then you know what lube to use.

Check out this very informative tutorial to learn more about graphite dry lube.