Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom!

Nonfractal · 4th-Feb-21, 11:55 AM

Enjoyed being put of this zoom and enjoyed the after-party (after the recording ended) just as much.
Who'd have guessed that so many of us are into guitars and guitar technology?

Alan W

Scuderia_Turini · 4th-Feb-21, 01:57 PM

Ref the Box Lid Art, that plain art was used for Set U50 according to "The Ultimate Guide" 8th Edition.
Other sets used the same art but over-printed with Set30, Set75 and others which had pictures of the contents.

MrFlippant · 8th-Feb-21, 05:22 PM

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

MrFlippant · 11th-Feb-21, 05:08 AM

BAracer · 12th-Feb-21, 10:00 AM

#43

In which we learn that the UK and North America are two land masses separated by the lack of a common trade names for glues.

Show + Tell brought out a 'rather nice' Frog Eyed Sprite that had been customised by Kitt Junior to represent a customers racing car from the time of grainy colour photos. If you want to know about the history of helmet visors, John is your man. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Dennis has now realised that doing a really nice decal job on a car only leads to people realising they are rubbish at it and are willing to pay him to do it for them! So that's 5 identical Mercedes Policar F1s along with a Johnny Herbert Lotus. This prompted a Slot Car Truth (i.e. cry for help)...

"Doing your own decals is part of the hobby!"

Kelly had done that with his Corvette, which prompted another Slot Car Truth out of the Californian...

"Pledge Floor Shine is the perfect clear coat to go on top of decals".

We then had a quick fire round of "does having a front wing held on with a magnet give you additional magnetic grip"; "neat car stands"; "pins vs blades for guides". This was followed by a long discussion on the good/bad points for 3D printing. Good points are you get to play with UV disco lights. Bad points are broken bodies, holes in bodies, skin rashes, breathing difficulties, PPE requirements. And on top of all of that, you will be destroying the planet with all your waste.

There was a One Mile update with an 8 minutes submission. But it was decided that someone needed to get their wing car out to break the one minute barrier. What then followed was a history masterclass in the sport of wing car racing. As a newcomer to the sport/hobby, it was an absolute mouth dropping few minutes on what you have to do to get the highest performance out of one of those cars. All useful information for when club racing re-starts again, by which time I will have put my team together...an engine mechanic, braid mechanic, tyre mechanic, track slot mechanic, the list goes on...

However, Greg his putting together his own one mile challenger, it's a Scalextric DeLorean. Tyres are prepped, braids trimmed, and once he works out which controller to use to handle the 1.2 gigawatts of power needed to beat the record, he will be sorted.

MrFlippant · 16th-Feb-21, 04:45 AM

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

BAracer · 17th-Feb-21, 10:32 PM

#44

Game of two halves, Brian...

It kicked off with 3D chat and a question regarding the relative strength of mass produced bodies verses 3D printed bodies. No difference seemed to be the general consensus. The chat then morphed into an appreciation of all that is good and not so good with current 3D body design. It seems it is still an evolving art form, and if you can find yourself a good 3D CAD designer for bodies, don't let go of them; "There are good CAD files for bodies, and there are bad CAD files for bodies". Steve has found a good one in Spain, Alan found a bad one in Columbia, and Paul has still to work out how to get his new printer out of the box. Steve showed off a Lotus 30 body he just printed and was in the process of painting...

BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Lotus 30 that Chris had prepared earlier...all I see are beautiful wheels!

Steve continued with his explanation of what 'good CAD' looks like, and how it can be made stronger by adding glue, at which point Paul shows off a 3D printed carbon fibre Ferrari 250 LM body which looks very light...

"How light Paul?"
"I'll get my scales and tell you"

BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Shadow Can Am car that Chris had prepared earlier...with really stunning wheels!

The half time entertainment was meant to last 15 minutes and involve an in-depth discussion on the benefits of front wheel drive slot cars.

"None"

To fill the remaining time, we had our regular quiz. Everyone has to shout out their favourite slot car product, and whoever holds up the most examples is the winner. Petrucci won...again!

Fast Alan kicked off the second half with his collection of fast cars, the main principle being to put a motor in them that's far more powerful than you need so you don't have to worry about fine tuning the chassis or picking an optimum gear ratio because whatever you chose, it will still pull wheelies off the start line in fifth. So all Fast Alan has to do is concentrate on not hurting the marshal at the end of the main straight. Then someone asked whether the racers on the chat balance their wheels...

BOOM...up pops an actual wheel balancing tool that Petrucci had prepared earlier...with just a couple of plain hubs attached.

And the grand finale was a grand knowledge share on what can be balanced on a slot car, and how it can be balanced. Tyres, hubs, motor armatures, and basically anything else that rotates on a slot car. Once again, the scale might be 1:32 but the detail and effort that has gone into this from any of the chatters was jaw dropping. And out of all that came the details of a motor that any true slot car racer should be using if they want to call themselves a true slot car racer.

"19.6 grams"

MrFlippant · 18th-Feb-21, 01:36 AM

Ha! Now I know you're taking notes the whole time! ;-)

Nonfractal · 18th-Feb-21, 07:41 AM

Follow up links from this week's chat.
https://londonslotcarclub.com
Classifications favour inline cars. Race rules and motor specs in the "racing" tab.

http://www.nascotwoodslotcarclub.co.uk
Has no classification to run inline-only cars

A useful youtube DIY I found on static balancing.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Id2Jh137AU

Dennis, would you please post a link to the magnetically levitated balancer tool if possible ?
Alan W

BAracer · 18th-Feb-21, 08:42 AM

If I didn't take the odd note, it might all get a bit mixed up in my head...