by waaytoomuchintothis » Fri Mar 04, 2016 5:03 pm
Its been about ten years now, but when we were doing 1/24th Modifieds on a D-oval, we used to chuck the wheel and tire on an axle in a drill press, and use Permatex black Adhesive Sealant, part 16B. My method was to dab the tire in three places, then start the drill press (set for the slowest speed, just like you did), then get a glob of saliva on my thumb (no, the silicone never gets on your thumb, and when you do the next tire it doesn't taste like silicone), and turn the silicone smooth and even using my saliva between the stick and my thumb. We got mirror smooth tires every time, with no need to ever re-true them. The result was that the stickiest, best condition of the tire had 5 or 6 times the life of the same application that was sanded when dried in place. So it stayed essentially brand new for a very long time in hard racing (similar to the RTR tires and wheels from H&R.
On the old HRW site, there were at least two posts that demonstrated this method, one by me and another one that came later, but both failed to come up with an alternative to using a drill press. Some of the guys many years ago smoothed the silicone on a piece of glass (it looked funky because in those days silicone only came in white), which takes a knack, but when you get it, the results are just as good as mine. What you have done opens up the possibility that guys can "Rube Goldberg" a satisfactory rig to do the same thing without the need for learning a clumsy new technique, or buying a drill press. You even got the low speed turning figured. Good job! You know we love inventors around here! Just look at Dave and his various motor jigs, simplified chassis, all kinds of stuff. Jon and his Tire Razor we all seem to have one or two of, lots of resin casters, etc.