Center Gravity Mass Balance Stand

Say good-bye to single use tools with Derby Dust’s Center Gravity Mass Balance Stand.  As always Derby Dust tries to make the best of a tool to make it do more than one thing.  We first came up with a jig to allow you to install wheels without damaging the wheels you just put on.  I printed it and as soon as it came off the bed I was like I’m going to add a COG Mass Balance stand to it.

Pinewood Derby Wheel Install Jig

Age old problem solved with one tool.  Install your wheels on one side, flip the car over place the installed wheels inside the holes.  Now you can apply some force to install the second side of axles, without breaking things.  Use our axle pusher/remover tool to get a perfect gap every time.  This is for “standard wheelbase” cars where the slots are being used. It won’t work well on cars with fenders, though.

 

 

Pinewood Derby Center of Gravity Mass Balance Stand

This balancing point (COG) will differ from car to car due to design, type of weight, type of wood, etc.  Knowing at what point your center of Gravity will help you determine how aggressive your steer will need.  It will also need to be adjusted according to what type of track you are racing on.

COG matters if you want the best setup.  With a completely assembled car,  start balancing with the rear of the car hovering over the numbers.

Once you balance it, look down at the witness marks and located where you rear axles are.  This will tell you your COG.  Learn the whole process here.

 

Why is COG important?

Very excellent presentation done by a popular YouTuber

Why 3D Printing for Pinewood Derby?

3D printing is allowing me to change the way pinewood derby cars will be built for the future.  Using environmentally friendly PLA filament, I am able to virtually print just about anything I can think up tool wise.

First was the Drill Guide for BSA slots which solved a really old problem.  Then it just exploded from there.  Accurate enough to do the job right, cheap enough not to break the bank.

It is the best of all words.
These are the right tools for the job.
Take a look at all my 3D printing tools to help your builds.

 

3D printing is the future of machining.  I am proud to say that I am on board.  My print farm currently contains 9x 3D printers.
I plan on expanding that number by 2x fold soon so that I can have the ability to print over 15 K hours of tools a month.

If you have any idea and are looking at some small run productions….contact me for some production runs and times.