New Clubroom

The end of day 8, and for the main club room, the list of things to do is much less than things done.
The bottom half of the walls is now painted grey, and the middle stripe is due to go on today.
The radiator pipes have had a coat of grey, but will need another coat on top.
The concrete footing at the door end is conplete and painted, and all doors and door frames are glossed. Since they were a very dark blue/green colour, they may need another top coat. All the ceiling light covers are washed, and the emergency exit light has been tested satisfactorily.
The window sills have been painted, but ahain will need a final coat.
The floor by the door and under the proposed rostrum have been sealed and leveled.

Away from the main club room, the main toilet and washroom has been sanded and washed, and toilet ceiling painted.
The second toilet washroom has been sanded, washed and the woodwork undercoated.

We hope to start the main hall electrics on Wednesday.
We also need to repair 2 old electric holes in the walls and touch up, and fit the last of the ceiling tiles.
There is one leaking radiator to sort out.
In the kitchen, we are going to re-tile one wall, re-plaster another, and then clean it down so that it can be used to paint the track sections in when the track build starts.

Mark

Not so much visible progress over Easter. The main hall painting is complete, and just needs the doors to be re-hung, and the ceiling tiles finished (though these are waiting for the electrics to be done).



We've made a first start on the track supports, and up against the wall on the left (behind tyhe ladder) can be sen the first 70 of the plywood triangles that will go to make the 63 track support legs. We're planning for the track surface to be 750mm above the floor, rising to a max of +250mm. The traingle leg supports are 480mm x 610mm, so 2 of these bolted together will manage all of the different heights.

Other work in the last week has ben concentrating on the other rooms, boxing in pipes and electrics etc.
The lobby has had a large hole in the wall repaired, 2 coats of emulsion, and the doors undercoated.

The main toilet has had the door frames, skirting board, window sill and water pipes undercoated and glossed, and the walls have had 2 coats of emulsion.
The washroom has been treated similarly. The doors themselves still need painting, and the water meter wants to be boxed in.

The kitchen has had broken wall tiles removed, and some of the wall re-plastered

The second washroom is now painted, though there is still the wall in the second toilet to 'make good', wash down and paint.

Hopefully the first 2 track sections will be cut tomorrow, and will have the bracing supports, and joint sections fitted and glued. When this has all dried, we'll be able to join them together, and check that the methods of joining the track sections and fitting the legs is all satisfactory. Watch this space ..... !

Mark

A couple of great days work. The lobby has all the skirting and door frames undercoated and glossed. The doors thmselves have been undercoated, and just need to be glossed. There's a bench to be installed under the window, and a coat rack put up. Then it'll be finished. Mick has been working all day, almost every day to get the bulk of the decorating finished so quickly.

Mac has ben tiling one wall of the kitchen, and is waiting for plaster to dry before final skimming and painting

The rest of the leg triangles have been cut, and a trial one drilled, slotted and assembled. Sophisticated stress testing has revealed no problems, and the plan for triple drilling and slotting finalised.

About 1/3 of the MDF track sections (by length) have ben cut (admittedly only the 'easy to drive' sections). and pieces have gone off with Dave to cut the 5 elements that will make each half of the track joint / leg attachments. Over the next week, we aim to glue these, trial fit and prove how the braid will fit through the ends of each track section, before assembling 2 sections of track on legs, and confirm our plans are all practical.

We hope to see everyone on Monday evening as usual.

Mark

More good progress this week. Dave has made the first joint for joining the track sections - 2 beautifully made pieces, drilled for bolts, and recessed for the braids to be connected, and these were glued to 2 track sections today. Below is a view of the underside of the sections with one half of the joint in the foreground, and the bracing struts (every other strut being drilled for a leg). The joint has been made from 5 sections of 12mm MDF arranged to give a 36mm 'tongue' (in the direction of travel) which fits into a corresponding 'groove' in the joint on the next section.



All the legs (63 of them) have now been completed, with the lower sections drilled in 3 places to accommodate the various track heights, and top sections slotted for the fine adjustment - the halves being joined by M10 coach bolts.



Mick and Clive have been down several times, and have finished most of the painting in the 2 toilets and wash rooms. All these doors are now painted and most have been re-hung. Just a couple want trimming to give a better fit.

Mac has arranged for the damaged wall in the kitchen to be re-plastered, and that looks to be ready for painting on Monday - many thanks Mac !

Jamie has finally located and cured the perennial water leak in the roof space - thanks Janie, especially since I hear you missed a roast dinner working on it most of one evening.

We should be ready to start routing the first straight section on Monday, as Ted has made an excellent steel plate to fit on the bottom of the router, with pins to 'run' along the edge of each track section to form the first slot, and in the first slot to route the second and so on.

We aim to have the first 2 sections, up on legs on Monday to prove the effectiveness of Richard's design and Dave's woodworking - watch this space.

Hi Rob,
Below is another picture of our joints. The track is 500mm wide (100mm lane spacing and 100mm run off each side), so we've formed the joints from 500mm long strips of 12mm MDF (an equal number of 40mm wide and 60mm wide). Then we've glued 5 strips on top of one another (a 40mm, then 3 x 60mm and another 40mm) to form a 'tongue' (the one on the right), and another 5 (a 60mm, 3 x 40mm and another 60 mm) to form a 'groove'. These should slide together smoothly. One or two have been a tight fit, and I've 'thinned' the tongue on those by fitting a larger router bit (around 10mm) in my pillar drill and 'milling' a few tenths of a mm of each side. The two halves have then been clamped together and two 10.5mm holes drilled for the M10 connecting coach bolts. Finally, we've made slots down the tongue (approx 20mm wide) for the braid to go through, so that it won't get crimped when the two joint halves are bolted together.



Finally, another picture showing the track partially assembled. We're gluing the joints (bolted together to assure perfect alignment) to the underside of two sections of track which are lined up exactly as we want them. Then the joints are clamped to the track (2 clamps to each half of the joint), and finally the bolts are undone and the track section moved apart and any glue seepage wiped away. We've done it this way, so that there's no risk of accidentally gluing the track sections together. This picture shows at the far end, the start / finish section in front of where the drivers rostrum will be, leading onto the main straight (down the left hand wall in the picture), round the bottom bend and up towards the left hander into the 'finger' (similar in concept to our old track).



Since the picture was taken, we've started getting the main straight barriers fitted. We've clamped a long length of perfectly straight angle iron (borrowed from Ted's workshop) to the top of the track (with as many clamps as we can spare), so that the straight should be completely flat. Then we're gluing and screwing the barrier (12mm MDF) to the sides, which should give the 'I beam' stiffness we want, and prevent any bumps and hollows down the straight. I'll let you know how our skills match the theory !!

ATB
Mark

A few photos taken today of progress.

We have joined up all the sections (which was a relief) and routed all the slots and hope to start painting next week.







No there will not be a great big step down into the Essess, which we should probably call Wickes Wiggles after all the discount we have had from them.

Here's a couple of pictures from the week before last. We've spent a fair bit of time recently fitting barriers. The original plan was to laminate 2 layers of 6mm MDF, and we were advised that this was quite 'do-able' if we 'kettle steamed' the 2 sides that would be facing each other. However, at the last minute, courage failed us, and we decided to use our trusted method of laminating hardboard. We've used 4 layers of 3mm, glued together with PVA glue (letting each layer dry before adding the next). The first photo shows our first section with only 40 clamps holding the layers together, and there are a couple of places round the bend where the bottom of the barrier isn't completely virtical, leading to some twisting. The second photo shows subsequent sections with up to 100 'clamps' (after raiding my wife's clothes peg bag). These worked realy well, and a further 200 'clamps' were purchased for the remainder of the barriers.





and finally, another picture of the overall track from the position where race control will be sited



Mark