Joining Tables

There are two methods of constructing tables for slot car tracks (that I know of). The most common method is to route the track and then create a custom table that fits the track. This method is more common and would appear to allow a faster construction time. The method I am using is the modular method. The advantage in this (as I see it) is easier dis-assembly and easier modification or addition to an existing track. The drawback is that it takes more time. I didn't anticipate this exactly when I was planning. The big factor appears to be simply that you have to conform the track to the tables. This takes a little more time, especially at the joints where the tables join together. I am going to have to do some trimming of the ends of the track pieces in order to get them to fit.

Here you can see the two tables placed together. I have not done any blocking on the second table but I just placed the track in order to get a couple of photos. I will also be cutting some grooves in the bottom sides of some of the places where I want to have more incline and variation in grade.

Things are kind of going at a snails pace right now with all the activities. I hope it will pick up a bit when I mother in law comes back in June. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

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Slacking

It is really amazing how popular slot cars are around the world. Since I posted questions and shared my blog on one of the slot car forums, I am getting hits from all over. Europe, Australia, Canada and even South America. I have even seen some people using translation services from Spain. At any rate, thanks everyone for visiting and I hope to have more photo updates next week. Stay tuned!

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Blocking Table 1

This phase of construction involves cutting blocks and wedges to size and using them to get the proper height, elevation change, and turn banking as the track is mounted in the table. Luf's video really makes this look easy. He has pre-cut wedges and he just puts them in place. In reality it took me a quite bit of time to cut out the blocks and wedges to the correct proportions. It's kind of hard to get a sense of the banking from the photos. But keep in mind that I'm using 1x6 sized sides. I chose this because I really wanted to have a fair amount of variation in grade and turn banking on the course.

I decided to use wood screws to fasten the MDF to the blocks and wedges. I experimented on a couple of scraps first. Then I started work on the track. I will fill these screw holes with some wood filler.

Notes:

• I will hopefully finish up most of the work on table 1 this week and then be ready to start on table 2 next weekend. Can we see the light at the end of the tunnel yet?
• I used my cordless Ryobi saber saw to cut most of the blocks. I was concerned that the jig saw wouldn't do as good a job. But, after my battery wore down a bit, I used the Jig and it worked fine.
• There's quite a bit of overlap at the connection point. I am pretty sure I will have to cut the track end a bit to deal with this.
• Instead of making a third small table, I think I will attach the tight corner turn around section right on to the second table. So It will be L shaped and be about 7 feet long on that end. It will hopefully not be too awkward.
• I'm going to have to make a trip to Gateway Electronics pretty soon to get some wire and terminal blocks. Also have to order some copper tape. I found a good source by doing a bit of googling.
• Training on the bike is definitely taking a hit due to the track construction. I'm thinking I will really work on the second half of the season after the track is done. Cyclocross will be priority one this year for sure.

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Routing Slots Completed

I didn't get to do any work on the track this weekend. But I did manage to finish up the last section of the course during the week. This included fixing some of the little divots and cutting out the section with the jigsaw. And here you can finally see what the whole track will look like. You see it's not just a figment of my imagination, I really did have a plan!
To fix a couple of the little problems in the tight chicane section, I used Elmers wood filler product. I used a thin putty knife to sculpt the sides of the slot flat and then, after it dried, I used a little sandpaper wrapped around the putty knife to get it nice and smooth.		Jonathan had to do a little test drive a few times around the course. Careful with that Fly Porsche there!

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Tight Corners

These two shots show the tight corners which loop the course around and back onto the second module. I used the same short radius compass to route this section. All the previous experience gained came together in this one and I was able to create smooth slots.		And here you can see the section in context. The missing section goes straight across and under the long sweeping curve. It also contains the squeeze chicane. It looks like this course has a good variety corners and straights considering the relatively small space for a 1/32 scale track.
Here you can see the slots right after I completed routing them. I had originally thought of just routing everything strictly parallel. But Luf's words kept echoing in my head. It's better to have a course more interesting that you will not get tired of. So I added a little bit of a squeeze here. You can see the Lexon strip in place which allowed me to do it. Routing up to an existing slot is the real tricky part of doing this.
After finishing the tight section, I went back to the squeeze chicane and completed it. You can see a divot in the right slot where the line goes through the apex. I have a couple more of these in this section. Two of them seem like they might interfere with the guide on the cars and I am not completely happy with this section so I am going to putty up some of the places and re-route them.	You can see that I have added a couple of cars to my collection. The Porsche 917L on the left is a copy of the Martini car used at Lemans in 1970. And the blue Ford GT in the middle is the car driven at Lemans by Mario Andretti and Luciene Bianchi in the 1966 edition of the race. These are beautiful models.

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Weekend Update

My friend Bret showed up and helped me a bit after the party. One good suggestion Bret made was to just plunge the router into an existing slot in order to adjust for the depth. This was a good idea and a time saver instead of trying to readjust every time I change from the spacer to the compass.

Stay tuned, I will try to get more work done next Saturday. I know I'm going slow but at last I'm gradually making progress.

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Starting on Table 2

This is the track which will go in table one all cut out. I was able to take the two ends and push them together a bit and it forms a nice banked turn just like in Luf's video. It's going to be so cool!	Table 2 features this lane squeezing chicane which is one of the more trickier things to route. I originally wanted to have a bus stop chicane like at the Spa course in Belgium but I didn't really have a long enough section to do it on and it would be even more time consuming. So I settled for just a single chicane.	I used the plunge feature of my router to do the chicane and lane squeeze. It worked well. Unfortunately I broke my compass. But a Little duct tape repaired it enough to be usable.
You have to get a good view of the router bit in order to stop the router exactly at the right spot.	The second section with center slot completed. I had originally wanted to do this on one piece of MDF and then put a patch in for the section that goes under the overpass. But I am having second thoughts now. I still have plenty of MDF left. two whole sheets and plenty of extra from the cut out sections. It might be less work and smoother to just do the whole section which goes under on a separate sheet of MDF.	I cut out the overpass sweeping curve and laid it next to the section from table 1. It fits almost exactly. Jonathan was excited to see it too. The wife is a little worried about the size. I am hoping that once we get the furniture moved around and the track butted up against the wall, it will look good and still leave plenty of room.

A few notes:

• It's really fun to put down a fresh sheet of MDF and start thinking of how you are going to form it. Maybe kind of like a sculptor with a fresh stone to work with.
• Getting the slots aligned between the two sections of MDF went better than I expected. I just butted to first section up against the new MDF and marked it. I marked both edges of the slots so that I could be sure to have the router bit right in the center. The joint appears to be excellent and I don't think the cars will have any trouble.
• I'm leaning towards getting a variable power supply. I think I can get one for about $80. It would be much better to be able to turn down the voltage for Jonathan and his friends so that they don't get too frustrated by the speed.

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Table One Slotted

The fist sheet of MDF that I started on has served as a test bed for getting used to using the router and practicing some of the techniques required to route the track. You can see in this photo the first slot that I did two weeks ago and the new slot started this weekend. No burning this time and the router cut the MDF much more easily	Another shot of the two different routes. My first router bit was clearly defective. It would not cut very easily and it very quickly started burning the MDF. There was a buildup of resin on the bit too. The new bit which I ordered last week is made by a company called Whiteside. It is a solid carbide twin fluted bit. The difference in cutting was night and day. The router cut through the MDF with this bit like a knife through butter. Exactly like what I had read from other people who had made tracks.	This time I also attached a shop vac to the router duster port. This is really very helpful as it cuts down on the sawdust quite a bit. This is a plunge style router. The plunge style is a little more trouble to get adjusted to a precise depth. You can also see in this shot that the router is attached to a Plexiglas compass which I made. This took some time. I tested it on the board with the burned route and it worked great.
This photo shows the practice route made using the compass. For this parabolic turn I used two different radius. It worked very well.	After I finished practicing on the first board, I laid out the course on a second board and routed the middle slot all the way around. After finishing the center slot all the way, you can then easily route two more slots using this narrow sinter board. Just stick it in the finished center slot and use it as a fence to guide the router around the track and create slots parallel to the center slot.	And here is all three slots finished on the board for table one. One and a half more boards to go. Before I cut the track out of table 1 with a jig saw, I am going to place table 2 MDF up against this so that I can get a smooth and accurate beginning of the track as it continues on.

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First Car

I ordered an Artin Saleen and it arrived last week. This car is fairly inexpensive for a 1/32 slot car and is probably only mildly collectible. Never the less, you can see that it has a very nice level of detail right down to the Goodyear label on the tires.	And here is a shot of the car in my hand so you can get an idea of the relative size. Not very large actually but enough to be able to see and work with.

Yes, Jonathan is pretty excited about the track. I wish I had more time to work on it so I could get it finished sooner!

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A Few Details

I referred to Luf and Norm earlier. These are two guys who offer a video on how to build a track. You can find out more at Luf's web site, Old Slot Racer. I purchased the video and the router kit from Luf. the kit comes with a long lexon strip pre-drilled, the router template, and another piece of sintar that you stick in the middle slot for guiding the router on the parallel slots. It's an excellent system for routing long and free form lines.

The track itself is made out of 3/8s inch MDF board. I had to do some searching to find 3/8's inch thickness. The most common size is 1/2 inch. Lowe's and Home Depot have this and it is very reasonably priced. The advantage to getting the thinner stuff is that it is easier to form. So you can have elevation changes and banked curving. I found a place fairly close by, Beyers Lumber who were able to get me some 3/8's MDF in just a couple of days. The price was a bit more than the 1/2 inch stuff but I think it is probably worth it. I got a couple extra sheets just in case I make too many mistakes.

The track will be modular. I will use folding legs to hold it up so it can be easily disassembled and moved. And also, I can extend or replace any table module if I want to.

I will try to get more work done this weekend and provide more photos. Stay tuned!

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Project Started!

Putting the platform together using Luf's table ideas.	After the table was ready, I used it as a low bench to draw the track on the MDF. I made a couple of compasses out of Plexiglas which was cut to size at Home Depot where I got it from.	This is Luf's router template. One of the most time consuming things was drilling it and cutting it out to fit my Black and Decker router. But I managed with a bunch of drill holes and a small hack saw. This template is thick and rigid so I only used two of the four base screws to hold it.
The results of my first attempt at routing. Luf's lexon strip is on the right. It is truly an ingenious tool. Straights are no longer boring but can contain any kind of random line. Very cool!

Thoughts and comments:

• My router appears to go slower than Luf's used in the video. Don't know why that is.
• I had some trouble with burning the MDF as I was routing. The saw dust would ignite from the hot router bit it seems. I experimented with different speeds and different pressures. None of this seemed to make much difference.
• The burning odor was pretty strong for a while and managed to spread through the house. I will probably have to do the rest with the garage door open.
• In the video, Norm says to route just a hair over a quarter inch. I set the depth a little too deep at first and I went through the board in one spot slightly. A hair is pretty narrow!

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bobber at kc0dxf dot net

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