New Clubroom

Just a quick update. Good progress in the last 2 weeks. All the asections of track have been cut
and fitted together. All slots routed and all barriers fitted.

Yesterday, Mick and I were down at the club again. The router bit for
cutting the braid recess has arrived, and Ted has drilled out the center,
and inserted a 3.4mm shaft for the guide in the slot. Mick cleaned all the
surface of the track, and routed the recesses of the sections we could
reach, then we dismantled the sections that ran above other parts of the
track, and completed those recesses.

I carried on Richard's work on the driver's rostrum and race control. I've now
finished off the flooring, and started the front panelling.

Mick and I aim to be there tomorrow (Monday) morning through to late
evening, so if anyone can join us, they'd be very welcome. Jobs to do are :
Dismantle the rest of the track, and level the undersides of the barriers
Continue work on the front of the rostrum
Another coat of emulsion on the 'sink' walls of the kitchen.
Move the rest of the timber from the kitchen alcove, was down and emulsion wall.
Prime and top coat pipes in Kitchen.
Dependant on dust levels, continue priming underside of track sections.

As the end of the 'build' stage come to an end, we need to sort out everyone's tools, and
start putting away / taking home, to free up more space for the track sections to be
laid out for painting, braiding and barrier painting.

ATB
Mark

Hi Guys,

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I know, but I have a spare, purpose engineered routing bit for braiding.

We have talked about this at recent retro events, you only had to ask !!!!.

It was in my race box at Wolves !!.

I had the Canadian produced router bit reduced in diameter slightly to move the braid just a bit closer to the slot edge.

( It was produced for predominantly 1/24th racing ).

Still available on loan to anyone if required !!.

VBR Chris A.

Another quick update. Dusty work is just about finished ! All benches in the track room are finished.

All building and 'fettling' of the track is complete, braid recesses are routed, and the underside of the track is painted.
Next job is a proper clean down of the room, and then we can start painting the track surface and the barriers, and then lay the braid, and attach the wiring.
Then the track can be re-assembled

Some work still to do on the drivers rostrum, and then that can be painted, and the electronics for race control fitted.

Some electrical work to be finished to provide power to race control, and the electrical safety cert to be issued.

Kitchen area has been cleared, just some more boarding to be done, and the rest can painted. Then the final benches in there can be fitted.

Then organise some club cars and controllers for guests, and we can start racing !

ATB
Mark

Good progress again in the last week - all the club members down in the last few days. Especial thanks to Murray who spent all Monday evening on his hands and knees scraping up paint and glue from the floor.
All the track is primed now (track surface and barriers), and half the barriers have their top coat on.
Mick has started the first top coat on the track surface, but it's proving difficult and slow to get it evenly into the slot and recess.
Richard has dug up the broken tarmac outside ready to lay gravel.
Dave has just about finished the electrics (hopefully to get certification on Thurs).
Richard, Mark and Dave have almost finished the rostrum.
Ted, Ant, Clive and Mac have almost finished painting the kitchen and toilets.
The double sided tape is here, and the braid is due tomorrow, so we hope to finish painting this week, braid and assemble next week, and run for th first time on Monday 9th.
Fingers crossed !!
Mark

Another good week, and 7 of us down at some time or other yesterday. Mick finished the 3rd top coat on the last pieces of track, and Richard and I have braided about half the track. Mick has started painting the insides of the barriers, and we aim to finish all painting and braiding tomorrow - then track assembly !
Ant has been able to find us a PA system - many thanks for that Ant !
Dave has finished building the race control part of the rostrum, and I've 'floor painted' the newly laid concrete in the hall and kitchen.
Ted has finished painting all the pipes in the kitchen - and there were more of them than you get track calls in a Nationals Final !
Dave and Mac have also finished cutting out the old crumbling tarmac outside, and laying stones - we also have a letter box now, so the front is pretty much finished and painted.

Yesterday we made a list of the things to do - and it's still a long list (includes buying rubber matting to go on the benches, buying and replacing 'blown' ceiling lights, fitting the last bench tops and ceiling tiles) etc, etc. We've broken it into 'this week', 'next week', and 'after the S32 round on the 15th'.

I'll be much relieved when we've got the last bit of track braided without running out of braid, and the track electrics are 'hooked up' and working.
Hopefully another update and some photos later in the week.

Mark

Hi Bill,
Yes - thanks for pointing that out - we were sure we'd missed something. However, we knocked up a few more pieces of track yesterday, and finished it off.



Overall, another good day yesterday, with all the club members down at some time or other during the day.
The kitchen is finished, rostrum is fully painted and the controller sockets are being wired up tonight.
Blinds are installed at the two end windows to cut out glare on the track, and tidying up has started, with tools disappearing off home at last.

Just a last bit of fetling to the track joints, and we plan to run tomorrow evening.

For anyone coming to the S32 round on Sunday, you'll probably come down Hamble Lane from the Tesco roundabout at junction 8 on the M27, and turn right into Portsmouth Road, there's a sort of left / right S bend, then 5 bungalows on the left (south side), a double story house, and then the next building is ours (single story with blue door). Parking is possible in Manor Close (turn back on yourself immediatley the S bend finishes), or in the pub car park 50 yds further on the right.

Mark