Looking at Building a Wood Track

[grenade10]

When I got into 1/32 racing a few years ago it was to share my hobby with my grandkids, but as everything that I have raced over the years I get more involved, which is what lead me to this group.  I started with Scalextric Classic Track and then to their current analog set up.  But after racing on the Carrera, Revel and wood track I can see the difference in the tracks and am looking to go down another path.  A wood track makes the most sense as I have a 6,000sf shop for building doors, windows and trim for my business but assume I will be retiring in the next few years.  So I better do this sooner than later.

A few thoughts and questions:

    My space will limit the size of the track, but I think that 3 lanes was fun to run on and enough difference in lanes to make it     interesting.  Any downside from running 2 or 4 lanes?

    If I use my space well, the track should be an L-Shape but probably have the long end up to the wall or both back edges against the     wall.  If the back was a long straight with a sweeping turn, I would assume minimal corner marshalling.  Could this work?  Any     reason to not do this?

    I am not really sure where to put the driver's stations with and L-Shape track.  If away from the wall they could be on the long back     edge.  If up against the wall, and either end was away from the wall, that would work.  Not sure being inside of the L-Shape would     work.  Thoughts?

    Since my light bridge is for 2 lanes with my DS system, I will end up getting a new system if I go for more lanes.  Light Bridge or     Dead Strip?  I know most of you use Trackmate (and I used their software at our RC Track back in the late 80's) that makes sense     and as I have seen, there is much help with this and makes running races easier.

    Anyone have any locations for track layouts to look at start playing with.  I have enough additional track that I could build the new     table and play with the layout before cutting the wood track.

    Any other thoughts on a new wood track?  Any reason to not do a wood track?

In the 60's I had a fully landscaped HO track and after seeing Tom's and David C's track with the Vintage Club, it brought back great memories of racing Saturday mornings.....   This will also give me something to work on and enjoy.   Plus, the current track will move to the grandkids house so PaPa can come over and play.

Thanks
Mark

[Jim W]

Mark,

Look at your PM I sent you

Jim W

[Jim W]

I think a wood track would make a great track for you. I enjoy mine that I bought and moved to my house. I extended the track, rebraided it and put Slot Car Corner drivers' stations and used their wiring kit also.

Jim W

[grenade10]

Started today with setting up the new table. Should have it done this week to start putting down the Scalextric 4 lane track. Hoping to make first laps in the next two weeks.

Thanks for all the help and encouragement!

Mark W.

[grenade10]

New table has been built and the track has been laid down.  Missing 4 sections, but thanks to Harry, I will have them Thursday.  Trackmate arrived today and track wiring should be here tomorrow.

With some luck I may make my first laps this weekend.

Thoughts???

[grenade10]

Pretty Good Progress in a week.  Table is fully fastened, felt is down, track is down as well as all barriers.  Power wiring to the track is solder in so ready to wire in the controller boxes, and power.  Light Bridge is in place and some of the cabling for Trackmate has been started, so maybe Sunday it could be driven.......

Attachments:

[phlash]

Lookin' good Mark!

[grenade10]

We had Harry, Marc G and Jim all come up and spent about 4 hours playing with the track. Trackmate worked flawlessly on the Temporary Computer (Marc did find how to increase the size of the data boxes) until the laptop I purchased arrives. Found out that Trackmate is set for a 64bit system, and they have no option for Windows XP on a 32bit unit. I will be adding more lane dots, working on permanent corner gaurdrail boards with graphics and adding the XLR plugs. I have some work to do at the track sensors as the eye's are in the slot and blue lane needs to be down more, but the others are going to move as well.

We now have broken the 4.0 second lap -Thanks to Marc G. We did our first round robin 2 min race. I am going to add a track call button, and set up a delay before power is stopped as it is hard to get a wreck clean up coming onto the main straight. Also looking for a grabber that can come from above.

Items that would not work on this track, just like any other Scalextric track is a deep wood guide, thick guide like a SlotInvaision (I do have some I run, but have surfaced them down to under 0.80 width) and long guide. I beleive that the Carrera red guide was used and it worked on even the very tight R-1 sections.

We did run Scalextric, Carrera, Ninco, Thunderslot, Slot-it, NSR, SRC and RevoSlots along with Vintage Revel and Strombecker Cars. Getting the brushes set as usual eliminated the few issues we had. Wide range of controllers were also used but you will need brakes for this track.

Thanks to all that came up, hope you had an enjoyable time.

Ps. we did run the track both ways and since Marc G likes it better one way, we will never race that way........ HaHaHaHa!!!!!

[Jim W]

Great idea on running the track the other way. I know that can work for the "home advantage", I will use it when I can. It doesn't work when Jerry is there, he only needs a lap or two and he can then run his best lap of the night. Marc needs three or four laps and then we are looking at a track record.

We really liked the track and had a good time.

Jim W

[grenade10]

Aug 21, 2022 8:01:55 GMT -7 Jim W said:

Great idea on running the track the other way. I know that can work for the "home advantage", I will use it when I can. It doesn't work when Jerry is there, he only needs a lap or two and he can then run his best lap of the night. Marc needs three or four laps and then we are looking at a track record.

We really liked the track and had a good time.

Jim W

Got the track lane markers down, sensors lowered so no issues with the guides. So I actually got back to working on cars. Was nice having the track working.

Glad you liked the track. I thought the race was pretty fun.

[grenade10]

I talked with my CNC guy and he is interested and ready to cut the parts for the 3 lane version.

Three questions:

Thickness of MDF?

Width of slot (cut at 1/8" and sand or cut at 3mm and sand to 1/8")

Depth of slot. 3/8"

Will not put this down in 2022, but maybe early 2023.

[Jim W]

The MDF only needs to be 1/2".

The width of the slot, use a 1/8th" bit is recommended by Slot Car Corner. If one is using braid for their track and is doing it by hand, Slot Car Corner also sells the "special" bit to trim for the braid cut. It has a 1/8th" pin that would ride in the guide slot, and you would then adjust your router to make the depth of the cut to set your braid in the track. You would need to measure your braid and tape to make sure of the final depth of your cut. may be 0.025" or may be 0.040" or whatever it is. Also do you set the braids at the surface or below the surface of the track. If you have banked corners, the width of the slot may have to be "sanded" or corrected after the track is finalized, depending on the amount of banking.

Depth of slot may also be variable, depending on your use. Some 1/24th cars have a deeper guide than 1/32 cars. I just measured a 1/24th guide that was 0.350" while my Scaleauto guides for 1/32 cars are 8mm / 5/16". The braid was not measured with these numbers. The braid could make the track depth cut less. Also, any elevation changes could alter the number for the depth.

I haven't built an MDF track so I don't know what I am talking about. I just have made some changes to the one I have, like adding the braid to some sections of the track that had copper tape on them before I put all of the sections together.

Jim W

[grenade10]

Jim, all good information. I will route so 1/24 scale cars can run in the track.

[grenade10]

I just finished doing the track on a track program. Lane lengths are Red - 55.0'. Blue - 53.4'. Green 51.8'. Yellow 50.2'

I have also done the track section as number boards around the track.

A few more details then back to real work and working on my cars and driving....

[grenade10]

After racing at Fred's track this past weekend, and I am starting to finalize the layout to get the wood track routed before my friend leaves working for the company that has the 4' x 8' CNC Macine.

I am thinking about an elevation change in the track. I had thought about raising the back straight up, but not sure if we should start that in the big turn on the right. Part of the question is I want to race this track both directions. Also then how to come down to the start finish line. My initial thought is maybe do a slight bank to the large radius, then start the raise at the end of the turn. Raise 6" to 8" maximum, but set that using the plastic track (with out banking the turn). I would do a faster drop to have done half way through the straight after the first right sweeper.

I would love input from anyone. I may try and have this done by March.

Thought's