pinewood wheel hub tool
The Pro-Hub Tools is a precision machined tool designed to improve accuracy and reduce friction in Pinewood Derby Car Wheel hubs. This tools perform 3 important wheel preparation functions and is the base tool for the
Pro Wheel Shaver XT2 and
Pro Hub Shaver, making it an expandable tool in your Pinewood Derby Car Building Kit!
Pro-Hub Tool (Inner)
- Ensures proper axle fit by reaming undersized wheel bores (great for wheels that don’t fit on the mandrel!).
- Ensures accurate rotation by squaring the inner wheel hub to the wheel bore for proper mounting on a Wheel Mandrel.
- Reduces the wheel hub to car body braking effect by accurately and easily coning the inside wheel hub.
Instructions for using pinewood wheel hub tool
The Pro-Hub Tool has a square end to improve wheel hub accuracy (and thus performance) and a coned end to reduce hub friction. Check local rules before coning wheel hubs. The tool also reams undersized wheel bores.
Wheel Hub Squaring
Perform before any other wheel preparation steps:
- Test fit each wheel by sliding it onto the tool pin. If the wheel bore is too small for the tool, use steady hand pressure and a twisting motion to work the wheel on to the tool. Remove the wheel and repeat 3 times.
- Dip the coarse-grit sandpaper in a cup of tap water.
- Remove the protective cap from the square end of the tool, pierce the sandpaper (grit facing outwards) and slide the sandpaper until it contacts the body of the tool. To minimize the risk of a hand injury, leave the protective cap on the coned end of the tool.
- Place a wheel onto the square end of the tool, hub side first.
- With one hand hold the tool and the sandpaper, and with the other hand press the wheel against the sandpaper. Rotate the wheel back and forth for about 10 seconds.
- Repeat steps 2-5 for the other wheels. Use a new area of the sandpaper for each wheel.
- If the hubs will not be coned, repeat steps 2 to 6 with the fine-grit sandpaper.
Coning the Wheel Hubs
Perform after all other wheel preparation steps:
- Perform steps 2 to 6 above using the coned end of the tool and the coarse-grit sandpaper. Repeat the steps using the fine-grit sandpaper.
Technical Data
The Pro Hub Tool has 4 important uses in building a Pinewood Derby car and is the Cornerstone of performance.
- The Pro Hub Tool is used for sizing wheel hub bores. Hubs can vary in size as much as .010′ in molded wheels. The Pro Hub Tool will allow the builder to ream their wheel hubs all to the same size or help in selecting 4 wheels with similar hubs, this is one if the most important steps in alignment because it allows the car to sit square with equal radius’s on all wheels [distance from the hub to the tread] even if all of the wheels are the same finished size, the hub variances will prevent the car from sitting square to the track.
- The Pro Hub Tool is used for squaring hubs. All hubs have defects from the molding process that prevents them from being mounted correctly on a mandrel. The Pro Hub Tool will square the in-board hub to the center-line of the wheel, which allows for the most accurate tread face finishing.
- The Pro Hub Tool is used for coning the hubs. All derby cars will benefit from coning the in-board hub for a reduction in body to hub friction. The Pro Hub Tool makes a even, polished cone that reduces body contact by 95% and can even be used to polish in graphite by adding a small amount in the dished end after coning for even more friction reduction.
NOTE: The Pro Hub Tool is the base tool for the Pro Wheel Shaver XT2 and the Pro Hub Tool. These 3 tools together will correct all the critical points of a Pinewood Derby Wheel helping to make them precision racing parts.
