[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

[Kevan]

That looks useful, can you give us more info on the electrickery please.

[Scuderia_Turini]

Hello John,
This has got to be a boon to clubs and large home tracks.
Neat job overall and even the diode stack board.

Would it be possible to have two guide blades? One at the front to steer the unit and one at the rear to carry the pick-up braids so that the braids are contacting  the cleaned rails?

Leo

[JMay]

Kevan, 
 See below for the wiring of the motors and diodes.

   

Leo,
       Possible to put a second guide on but the geometry regarding the position both in the long axis and height relative to the chassis plane would be interesting. The design has a front mounted magnet just behind the guide to pull the front down so the guide braids have a good contact, the front axle can float in the axle holders and the mop pod can move up & down relative to the chassis allowing for any track rise or fall.  A second guide to the rear (without braids may be useful) to help the robot track the rails better on the corners avoiding the back kicking out would have to test that to see if it would jam on the tight radii. 

In practice it takes @3-10 laps to clean the rails and so even a rear guide will still pick up the crud. Using this on the GT Raceways track which is @100 ft per lane I found that cleaning the braids after each lane or if it stops was acceptable. 

Cheers
              John

[chappyman66]

Very nice solution.   Thank you for sharing!

[Kevan]

Thanks John 

[Scuderia_Turini]

Hello John,
I see what you mean, I guess that it would really need independent front wheels and a differential although perhaps just glued up front tyres.
Have printed out the chassis and found the 100 "rotary polishing pads" on Amazon so will have a go with this. 

Many thanks for another great contribution to the community.

Best regards, Leo

[OXO cube]

might try this 
is there a link to the polishing pads ?

[JMay]

Link to pads

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C...UTF8&psc=1

Cheers
                 John