[davoq]

I bought a Ninco n-digital set at Christmas, just for a bit of fun, as we had a number of people round on the day and wanted to create the fond memories of childhood playing Scalextric on the carpet.

Enjoyed it and watched the series TV series "Short Circuits", started looking at these web sites and then bang, I was bitten, I'm sure you know how it goes!

I was incredibly inspired by the works of jmswms, Luf and jmghF1.

I ordered Luf's router kit and taping tool and started learning the craft on some test pieces. I have a background in electronics so have been playing around in that area too, decoding the Ninco protocols and building my own lane changers, but more of that in the future, I have to build a real track first.

That's when I struck my first problem, where to put the track? The only way was up, into the roof, but this is what my attic looked like, a high pitched truss roof. Plenty of head room, but you couldn't move around for the trusses.

I decided to contact some experts, "Roof Access Systems" in Perth, very helpful. They organised an engineers report and were able to reinforce the roof and remove a number of the trusses, I was in business. They then wnet on to convert the space into something usable with floor, insulation for walls and a vent/skylight.

and now my work begins

 

[davoq]

I ended up with a space roughly 5m by 5m, here is a plan:

The grid is marked in 50cm squares, the big grey rectangle is the access hatch, the circles are ceiling fans from the floor below ducted out of the attic into the roof space, the irregular shapes maked by the heavy black lines are the benches I have constructed.

This is the one on the left of the diagram:

and this is the one at the top of the diagram:

I wanted to hide the remaining roof trusses, there was only really one left of consequence and that will be covered by a hill climb, mocked up first with cardboard.

 

[davoq]

Then I challenged the 9mm MDF to see how much it would bend (without snapping), I ended up only undercutting one small section, but probably didn't need to.

So that gets me up to the top, now how to get down?

That didn't work, I'll try this:

That's better!

 

[davoq]

Now to tie the thing together and get both ends ready to join the main track. I intend to have the hill climb as an option for rally cars, but also have a main track that is more conventional.

Switched to Silver tape for the painted track as I prefer the look:

 

[JamieG]

If this is just the beginning than I am sure it will end up as a great project.

Thanks for sharing,
jamieG

 

[distantkiwi]

Really looking good, some of those photo's looked like a model with the table structure having been made out of match sticks

 

[350z]

Crikeys, Ninco set to attic, to roof reconstruction, to intricate base, to mock up track - all since Christmas! Wow, that's movin!

Isn't the attic going to get a bit warm in Perth in summer? Do you have any plans for cooling?

 

[Bluey]

I was thinking the same thing 350z. Australian summer + tin roof = bloody hot!

I cant wait for your next post davoq

Keep it up

 

[davoq]

Thanks to all for the comments.

Your not kidding about the heat in Perth, I will be installing an aircon.

It has certainly captured my imagination, there are so many aspects to this hobby.

Here's a little fella I painted when I got tired of the woodworking.

 

[Lloyd.L]

Hi Davoq, That is one impressive track you have going there, will be a real drivers circuit with all those twists and elevation changes. Will be watching your progress with interest.

Regards, Lloyd

 

[Captain (Aus)]

Davoq,

Very impressive setup you have there - PM sent.

 

[MrFlippant]

Holy Carp! This is a fast mover and will be fun to watch it grow!

 

[Philip P]

Looking good.

Please keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers,
Philip

 

[Savage]

I saw the title and thought, "blimey, an Aussie track in a small space, thats quite uncommon" then I look in and see you may be in the roof, but its still very large !
I look forward to watching this one develop, a racetrack with a rally/hillclimb optional section sounds great

 

[davoq]

Thanks Savage.

With the population growing, house and land prices rising, there are a lot of people subdividing their blocks in the inner suburbs and building a couple of two storey houses.

The classic quarter acre block is an endangered animal in the inner suburbs.

We are lucky that the roof has a high pitch and that we were able to reengineer it.

It will get interesting when summer comes around though as mentioned by the other guys.

 

[Nomadic Racer]

It looks like a great project, keep the pictures coming.

Rob

 

[davoq]

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement.

The previous photos did not include the work from the last two weekends, I will attempt to bring you up to date.

The hill climb is single lane only, but the main track will be two lanes, mostly. My intention is to build a BLST style circuit and am working on the elctronics to pull it all together in parallel with the track build. It will be based on Ninco n-digital at this stage. Grand plans, it gives me something big to work on across lots of areas of this encompassing hobby.

So, the first bend. I made lots of rough sketches of where I want the track to go, but it isn't until I work in three dimensions, with the real pieces, that I make my final decisions and glue and screw them in place.

I use 1200 x 900 x 9 mm MDF boards, easy to load into the car, easy to get through the attic hatch.

This first bend hooks up with the hill climb:

Patch it in:

Fill the holes:

 

[davoq]

The next bit was fun, I wanted to loop into the infield, before swinging back and on past one of the roof posts to the other end of the base frame.

Due to my planning method, I improvised the bends as I was tight for space, merging both slots into one to swing around a tight banked curve, I wanted to create a sort of sling-shot effect. I'll only know if it works when I try it with the cars!

Some under cuts:

A bit of crazy bending, lots of clamps, glue and screws:

Coming out of the sling-shot:

 

[davoq]

This next shot puts it into context and shows the following sections I worked on.

In the back corner is a steeply banked curve and along the centre is the home straight, on the other side of which will be the pit lane.

Here's a view along the home straight towards the hill climb:

Somehow, I had to make these to elements meet, so some more bending of the 9mm, no undercuts this time, they are rarely needed.

This was before I routed so I could make sure where the pieces would meet. I realise that this is probably not the most efficient way of doing things, but it suits the way my brain works.

Routed and screwed in place, there is a exit at the top of the curve to enter the pit lane. I will be installing all the lane changers when I've finalised all the slots.

Holes filled:

And finally, a pull out shot:

The unfinished track in front should loop around and meet the other curve to come over the "bridge" onto the other base frame, but that's work for this weekend.

 

[Captain (Aus)]

You don't muck around do you?

It looks like it is coming along very quickly.