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Track Progress... Been A While


schuey19

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Finished the drivers station panel tonight. Just have to give it a clear coat. As with the rest of the setup, its fully removable as a sigle piece, mounted by five screws and connected to the table through a single plug.

 

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Also took another shot of the light gantry, showing the two looms that come out from the bottom. Small one to power the IR LEDs that can be seen on the underside, and larger one which connects to the PC harness.

 

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And a shot of what I'm using to seal the scenery stuff. This can was kicking around, the next one I'll get will be a matt, though this doesn't leave a gloss coat. I have done a sandtrap using Woodland Scenics fine ballst and have given it five coats of the stuff.

 

100_4901.jpg

 

Hope you enjoy and thanks for the feedback.

Edited by schuey19
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a quick update. Back half of the circuit is basically done. Have run out of turf material so I've come to a halt. Some parts of the white lines need a bit of a trim. I just used correction tape.

 

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I'm so close to the end I am thinking of my next layout!

 

Thanks for looking.

Edited by schuey19
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That is looking fantastic, time well spent.

After many months of scouring Auslot forum, Slot forum, Archer etc, I'm in the process of designing my own 3 lane routed digital track and your layout is very very close to what i'm looking at building.

 

Just wondering how you are finding the Blackboard paint and how it might compare to the Ferrodor you mentioned you had raced on ???.

 

Also how's the visibilty thru the twisty bits near the overpass ???.

 

Congratulations Michael that's a damn fine effort.

 

Dave.

GROWING OLD IS MANDATORY / GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL

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The track is looking good,this one is taking about the same amount of time to build as my new one!

 

I used pin stipping tape on the old track for the edge and over the years it has lifted so I am going to seal this track white stripes with clear and see how that goes.

 

Phil

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Looks excellent Sch, once you get some colour on those hills and a few sponsors signs up, the whole thing comes alive. I love the bigpond hairpin and scenery, well done. :)

 

Typical thou, by the time you have got close to finishing the scenery, you will have done 100000 laps, learnt from the whole experience, and have the next one half planned out in the back of the mind.

Find me at Card Guys for custom trading cards

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Thanks guys.

 

Okay, now a response to two points.

 

Also how's the visibilty thru the twisty bits near the overpass ??

 

Typical thou, by the time you have got close to finishing the scenery, you will have done 100000 laps, learnt from the whole experience, and have the next one half planned out in the back of the mind.

 

With the experience I now have, I would change it. After doing a squillion laps I have come up with ways that would fix that visibility problem. Its not that major, as if you stand to right of the drivers station near the corner of the table, you can see the track that is hidden . Its only red lane that is affected. But, coming under the bridge, white lane has the same issue going left. (still with me?) But same as with red, stand towards the corner of the table and you have a clearer line of sight.

 

Any other layout though would mean opening up the turns, and therefore losing lap length. I have managed a length of 13.84m in the centre lane on a 12x6ft footprint.

Edited by schuey19
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Just wondering how you are finding the Blackboard paint and how it might compare to the Ferrodor you mentioned you had raced on ???.

 

While the ferrodor offers great grip, you will go through tyres at a great rate. It does look good though when you get the 'marbles' off the racing line. Also, as the surface is like a very fine grade wet/dry sand paper, I probably wouldn't use it if you will be having novices on your track. It does nasty work to the bodies if they end up with wheels in the air. I found this out the first time I raced on Boslot's old track. My brand new Fly Porsche 917 that I had won from last year's raffle was looking like I had got it off ebay for 50c by the end of the night. But that was the first time that I had raced slots for easily 13 years.

 

As for the chalkboard paint, I have found that when I first put it on, it offered heaps of grip. In time, either due to dust or rubber going down , like I said in the first post of this thread it has lost it's 'bite'. Now some overspray from scenery work has put a fine 'dusting' over parts, enough to swing the tail out a bit more. Once I do more laps though, that'll clear up. I don't intend to use WD40 on tyres either, just water.

 

Hope that answers some questions.

Edited by schuey19
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That is GREAT work! I really like the lack of grass where the drivers shortcut across the ripple strips.

 

Now you need to cut some car wheel tracks across the grass to imitate "Skaife's progress"

 

I think he was confuddled last weekend and thought he was in the WRC.

Recovering Lapsed Slot Addict :ph34r:  *  Custodian of many used screws (mostly loose :rolleyes:)  *  Total kidder  *  Companion of other delusional slot addicts :lol:  

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That is GREAT work! I really like the lack of grass where the drivers shortcut across the ripple strips.

 

Well done, love racing lines but I guess too many and placed on every corner would create havoc with inexperienced racers, which we all seem to get from time to time (me included)!

 

Can't look at the pics too closely, there always seems to be one of them "Blue" cars out in front! :lol:

 

FS

I can't believe that I wanted to grow up

 

Mount Salt Panorama Track Combined Road and Rally Track built near Salt Pan Creek Padstow - Sydney

 

A quick build rally track

 

2017 WRP Round 11 at Mt Salt Panorama

 

https://i128.photobu...zpss7sqiwfj.jpg

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I don't intend to use WD40 on tyres either, just water.

Why? Water on tyres only tends to clean Silicone tyres. Tape is a better cleaner than water on Rubber.

 

Phil

 

Not what we have found Phil. I use an old Tee Towel whetted and folded over. A bit of a burnout before the heat and the tyres work well. Schuey you may need to vacuum the track to get the dust off. I do either that or wipe mine with a damp cloth. Drys fast and no more dust.

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Schuey you may need to vacuum the track to get the dust off. I do either that or wipe mine with a damp cloth. Drys fast and no more dust.

 

It will get a good doing over with a vacuum when I've finished the scenery. It was getting covered all the time, but since I've been doing the greenery I haven't covered it until I make some framework to rest the covers on. Don't want it resting on the green stueff then taking half of it off when I go to use it. I do use a damp cloth to wipe it down when its really noticeable.

 

QUOTE

I don't intend to use WD40 on tyres either, just water.

 

Why? Water on tyres only tends to clean Silicone tyres. Tape is a better cleaner than water on Rubber.

 

At the moment I want to refrain from using it as I'm not sure if it will do anything to the surface over the long run. Anyway, there's enough grip, I don't think its warranted.

 

Michael

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  • 3 weeks later...

Absolutely no progress to report, as the last few weeks here at home have been hectic culminating in us moving house over the weekend just gone. Missed our monthly meet too, sorry guys, I should of let you know. Anyway, just gotten back online, so I thought I would show a couple of pics of the track apart for transport.

 

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The drivers stations panel is removed, and if the trip was any longer than the five min drive that it was, I would of placed a length of plywood across the exposed end of the table to prevent any damage to the track face. So far there does not seem to be any damage whatsoever to report, though the track is still apart, standing up against the garage walls.

Edited by schuey19
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It will be interesting to see how well all the joints and slots line up when you get it back together,that is where we always had problems when we used to move Shelmore track about.

 

During the build I had it apart and back again that many times, yet it lines up right every time. Any minor difference in level as you go over the join is always dropping not going up a step. While its apart at the moment, I'm looking at putting height adjustable castors on it.

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And I thought I was slow building my new track!

 

We've moved house and had a baby in that time. And I'm on a very limited hobby budget which has to include cars, and when we have 12 classes that we run, its a toss up between cars or materials.

Nice work schuey , nice track layout , I don't mind squeezes on a track but in the first corner mmm lots of crash restarts ? I raced on a track years ago that had one squeeze at the end of a long straight , I thought it was good as you had to either gamble and go for it or hang back to survive. A lot depends on who you race against with squeezes.

Very early in your posts you said you switched to chalkboard paint , I ran with chalkboard paint for ages . I have run on a lot of different surface paints and I think chalkboard was the best all round cost wise and grip wise, I found all tyres - sponge included - had good grip. It was easy to patch up , cheap and if ya like lighter coloured surfaces it can mix with ceiling white to make it greyer . . How are you finding it to be ? I found over time it lost its edge but in 10 minutes it can be touched up and when it dries you can hardly tell it was patched. A generous undercoat to seal the MDF is a good idea though , I had a mess around night and we sprayed a little water on the track - next thing a young lad sprayed a lot of water on . My back was turned for 5 mins ! The track survived . I will be using a solver product this time around on my track rebuild it looks a lot like it will offer the same type of grip , The rough finish Dulux Ferrodore is common here in SA but it is also good for removing paint from bodies

Edited by BMR
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  • 2 months later...

Doing a bit of work on the track at the moment. As the white lane comes out from under the bridge the turn is both unsighted and tight. So I am re routing it to open it up a bit. This should also drop the lap time by about .2 to make the three lanes equal at 6.5.

 

I've removed the copper tape of the section I am redoing.

 

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I marked out the new lane with chalk.

 

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Here's another shot of how the tables come apart.

 

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Michael

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Almost finished the rework. All that is left is to fill and sand holes from router guide, patch up the surface paint and relay copper tape, then put the tables back together.

 

Slot filled in

 

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Putty sanded and guide in place, chalk marking out new lane

 

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Routed and painted. While the new part does creep in on the centre lane, you can still be side by side.

 

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Like I said before, not much before its running again.

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Just got in from running a few laps with the reworked corner finished. As the track is a bit dirty, I wasn't going for lap times, however I could take the new corner much quicker than before. All three lanes should now be extremely close time wise, as white was always at least .2 slower.

 

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Overall shot, also illustrates how it takes up one side of the garage leaving ample room for the car on the other side. (mirror just visible)

 

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Now that I have redone this corner, something that I've been wanting to do for months, I can get back to finishing the scenery. Checked the local hobby shops on the weekend, they had a resupply of Woodland Scenics.

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Very early in your posts you said you switched to chalkboard paint , I ran with chalkboard paint for ages... ...How are you finding it to be ? I found over time it lost its edge

 

I'm very happy with the grip levels, and even the wear of the surface. Considering it was only one coat, haven't had much of a performance drop off, though it hasn't had an overly large amount of use, basically myself and occasionally my two kids and two nephews.

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Track looks great so when is the christening race?

 

Ahh yes, the christening event. I'm umming and ahhing about having it before or after I've finished all the scenery, its half done at the moment. But I'm leaning towards before. My wife's been pretty crook the past couple of months also, thats why I've missed most meets though I should be at Charlie's next week.

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