How to bend Scale Sport Track up/down Options

[downtowndeco]

I needed some extreme hills for my raid track & since I am trying to use up the old Scale Sport track from my last layout I needed to try & customize a couple pieces. What I wanted was to have very sharp up/down sections that were similar to the NINCO raid "dunes". Here's how I did it.

First I took a piece of the straight track and marked off the center section at about 1" intervals. I tried to avoid any of the exposed rails or tabs.



Next I cut it using a hand saw & a carpenter's square. I cut through the plastic supports/braces until I felt the blade reach the metal rails. Then I gave it a few more swipes to just cut into the bottoms of the rails. I went about 2mm into the rail. Of course, be careful, if you cut all of the way through the rail you'll lose power & the track won't work.



Here's what it looked like after I made my 7 cuts.



Now the fun part, the bending. The trick is to lay it upsidedown up against the sharp edge of a table and just do gentle bends at each cut. Just a little will go a long way. It's pretty forgiving, so if you need to, you can make adjustments later.



After I bent it I took a screwdriver and checked to make sure there were no jagged burrs of metal in the slot, because if there were, it would stop the cars plus if it reached all the way across it could cause a short circuit, which would be bad bad bad! Hold it up to the light so you can see what you're doing.



Ta da! The only thing different you have to do to bend a section down rather than up is to take a utility knife & cut out a small "V" at the intersection of each cut & plastic rib/support on the bottom. That way when you bend the track down it gives the plastic somewhere to go rather than fold unto itself (and bind).



I've tested this track w/my cars & it works great. For more elevation add a section or two of straight track in between the up and down sections.

Questions?

[Ember]

I've not gone this drastic, but I do find you get very smooth transitions if you do it over your thumbs. This is probably one of those instances where photos would help, but I haven't any.

But it's a case of essentially a push/pull motion. Hold the track with both hands, thumbs beneath the track and fingers above. And gently stroke and pull the track into the shape you wish. Pulling across the top with the fingers, and pushing with the thumbs underneath. The idea is to extend the top of the track whilst compressing it's base. The under cutting that you've done would certainly increase the amount of movement that would be possible.

Embs

[richardtheforth]

That's brilliant Downtown!
I've just recently been trying to do exactly the same thing, but a bit less dramatic as I'd like a wide range of cars to be able to go up and down them.
I'm lucky enough to have access to workshop facilities at work, and I've had success with putting the track through sheet metal rollers.
I was a bit worried about the rails buckling so I tried pressing a bit of dowel into the slot before bending it, and it seems to work a treat.
I've now got a selection of concave and convex half straights. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.
Cheers,
Richard

PS Can we see a video of the track in action please?

[stoner]

i,ve done it like richard, packed the slots with square plastic and used the nearest lamp post, just pulling on the track whilst moveing it around. john

[xonox]

Nice technique!
I have a Ninco track and i think this would be easy to do as the plastic is very flexible. It gets crazily flexible when left in the sun until warm. So far, sun hasn't caused the plastic to change shape.

[StuBeeDoo]

That's pretty cool.

I wouldn't want anything quite as extreme for my tarmac stage, but you've given me something to think about.

[downtowndeco]

An after note; After trying to work this into a temp layout I decided the hill was too steep. Yes the cars would go up & down w/no real issues. The problem was that if you didn't hit the hill fast enough you'd spin your wheels and maybe, maybe not, make it to the top. If you went too fast it was pretty hard to get it to land in the slot on the down side. You had to hit it just right, then back off at the crest. It was too difficult too often to get it to work. Yes it was fun, for a while, & while I definetly like a challenge, I want to make sure that the layout is not ridiculously difficult, as it really kills the flow of racing if you have to keep resloting. Live & learn. : )

PS. I just bent the track back a bit so it was not so steep. More fun now. : )

[stoner]

the track i bent was a ninco. i left the pieces in the sun and then bent them, but it was no where as extreme as your vertical hill. john