[dreinecke]

Track is looking great Doc.  Like the 3D goodies. I’ll have to vicariously live through your track, as mine is in many boxes OR U could pop in for a visit as the temps haven’t breached O0 in a week.

Why is your stuff in boxes now???  What have you done!?!?

80 degrees here.   I'll be cursing if it gets much warmer ;)

[Anthony B]

Outstanding

[Anthony B]

Any updates David

[dreinecke]

Sorry not at this time.  Work has been kicking my tail.  I hope to get back at it in a week or two.

[dreinecke]

Yikes...where has the time gone...?

I've 3D printed some guard rails, and done a little more turf work.

However, as it is now over 90 degrees and 75% or more humidity on a regular basis - simply running the air conditioning and de-humidifier isn't enough: my copper tape bubbles daily.  EVERYWHERE.  It is simple enough to re-burnish it, however then I get dead splices to deal with and it has come up over night and will not go back into place on some corners properly.  Really takes the wind out of your sails after a busy day when all you want to do is run some laps.

So, I have purchased non-mag braid, a routing bit for the gains, and the tool to roll it all out with.  That'll do the trick!

I hope to start working on that this week!

[Anthony B]

Looking forward to see your updates - an inspiring track i9ndeed!!

[dreinecke]

FINALLY!  An update for those who care to continue along with my track saga.

I'd purchased braid, the router bit for the gains, and a lovely rolling tool from the fine folks at Slot Car Corner in the USA.  I purchased their Tinned, Pre-taped, 1/4 tape.  It was very well packaged and the tools and bit are outstanding.

And then the garage AC died.  It was determined the motherboard on the outside condenser that talks to the inside unit was bad.  6 weeks later they informed me that they could not get the part and simply sent me an entire new condenser.  So, I pulled the board from that, replaced the bad one, and all is well again.

I peeled up (not that I really needed to after 2 months at 90 degrees) what was left of the tape and decided to re-route two 2' areas that I'd bobbled the router off the gate during the original routing of the track several years ago.  They always looked funny and since the gain bit follows the existing slot, well I knew that would look pretty bad.  I bondo'd those areas and re-routed them straight.  I used my son's handy, cordless trim router and it worked perfectly!

   

   

Once done, he helped me route the gains.  It was even more simple than I'd thought it would be.  We swapped vacuum duties back and forth a few times and had it done in about 30 minutes, including a few corners we changed the depth of the gain on due to banking on the curve.

   

   

   

The fetching Mrs. R helped paint them all up in the Red/White/Blue the slot has always been.  While I was keen on painting them, I was a little concerned it was too bright, but fortunately the braid tempers that quite a bit, and the old guys that visit will stop asking what lane they were in during an off!

   

The braid is ridiculously simple to lay, and the roller I got really works well!  Everything laid down nice and neat.  I did drop the braid at each table joint so the track is truly modular and simple to separate.  For all the joints under the track, I simply used wire nuts for the connections.  I used one of these to wire my stations to, and I am now able to get back to racing when I have time and working on the scenery, which has languished for months.

The track is smooth and the power is constant with no drops.  I always liked copper tape for my indoor tracks (in the basement), but this Florida weather is a deal-breaker.

   

   

So, many months later, there you have it!

[Anthony B]

Awesome - PLEASE keep the updates coming   

I am in process of building mine and am avidly followimg all the builds at the moment

[rallyhub]

Hi Dave,

Nice report of your splendid track.
Please ,keep the pictures coming.

Hub

[Carver]

Now, this is what I would call a Slot Car Track!  

Carver