[JMay]

Been busy since January helping out with the GT Raceways club members move the club track to its new premises in Battlesbridge Essex.

   

The track was out of action for 6 weeks plus during the move so gathered dust and the rails tarnished, the dust was easily removed the rails was more difficult so came up with a 3DP robot as below. 

   

   

This uses Dremel type polishing mops held between cog and axle stopper on an axle driven in reverse by a Scalex motor all mounted in a separate pod that is sprung loaded to the main chassis (applies controllable pressure to the mops to the rails)  and the robot crawls round the track via a sidewinder NC1 motor geared 10:38 and fed from a diode dropper board to keep the speed down. Placing a shorting plug in the lane socket allows the robot to cruise round the track polishing the rails, and it is noticeable that after a a few laps the robot speeds up and drives more consistently.  

Below is the STL file for the robot. Polishing mops I got a bag of 100 from Amazon for a tenner. 

Track cleaner.stl Size: 1.48 MB  Downloads: 15

Edit: motor holder for the pad drive IL motor file.

MH x 2.stl Size: 140.32 KB  Downloads: 7

(Motor Holder) 

Cheers 
             John