[-GR-]

I had been doing various layout drawings for way too long now and finally made my mind up last week on what I wanted to do. I picked the mdf up this past Thursday and got to cutting it to the table size right away.

As of last night this is where I am at. I did one final assembly on the garage floor so I could make the joiner piece at the bridge. While it was together I took some pics with my phone. I also started doing one of the lane change pieces. I started with the XLC because I figured it would be about the best one to try first. I had already made up the flipper assemblies using peco solenoids.

Here are pics of the progress on the track:

Here are a couple of pics of the lane changer assemblies:

The overall dimensions on the track is 6' x 16'. I am not sure what the lane lengths are but I am guessing between 55' and 65'?

 

[Black3sr]

That is nice. Great size for a home track. Not too big and not too small. I hope you have a few people to race with.

I like how you worked the crossover as one pice first. I did my bottom slots then laid a piece under the two ends that were going to be raised to mark the cutoffs before fastening and routing.

I will be interested in how your lane changes work once you are finished.

Hey I have a friend from Hanover that use to work at the York newspaper.

 

[-GR-]

QUOTE (Black3sr @ 8 Aug 2012, 10:12) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That is nice. Great size for a home track. Not too big and not too small. I hope you have a few people to race with.

I like how you worked the crossover as one pice first. I did my bottom slots then laid a piece under the two ends that were going to be raised to mark the cutoffs before fastening and routing.

I will be interested in how your lane changes work once you are finished.

Hey I have a friend from Hanover that use to work at the York newspaper.

Hanover is only about 20 minutes away. We used to get the York Newspaper when I was a kid. Their printing facility is only about 10 minutes away LOL.

I am not sure how many people will eventually race on the track. For the most part it will be me and the kids and I am planning on doing some racing with a local club but don't know if I will host any races. Our basement needs to be redone. We had a flood last year and had to rip out everything that was in the basement and I don't really want to spend the money on redoing it again. Insurance wouldn't cover it because of it being ground water.

Once I get the xlc laid out and have a general idea of how it needs to be done I am going to start getting it all painted. I can always touch up later. Mainly because I would like to be able to get the copper tape on so I can get the power taps and get the wiring soldered in place for the lane changers. I am eager to get it all done but have a tractor show next weekend so it may have to get put on hold for a week then.

It would have been awesome to have had the flippers cnc machined but I don't have access to one and don't really have the extra money to have them done. I did them by hand and they didn't turn out too bad, they could be a little more defined and more of a radius in some areas.

 

[mattblack]

Great start

Huge track aswell... Ive just managed to get a good space in the house for a 7' x 5' track, just got the base down so far... looking forward to more pics in your thread.

Cheers - M

 

[4.3 ZOOK]

Nice looking track,will be following!....

 

[Damo]

Hi, Welcome to the forum. You've got a great project on your hands and if you can keep updating with photos this thread will get some good interest, myself included.

Thanks for posting. I can't wait to see the progress!

Cheers,
Damo.

 

[-GR-]

I will do my best to make sure I take pics along the way. I have a tenancy to forget to take pics when I am working on it.

I got all of the routing done for the recesses for the lane changer pc boards except for the last two which will go on the 8' piece that has the pit lane. I had to hold off on that one because I need to find out what the distance is from the flipper to the sensor for the pit lane? Is it the same 7 1/2" as the normal lane changers or are they closer to the flipper since the speed is slower? If someone with a pit lane could measure the distance for me from the tip of the flipper to the sensor that would be great.

I got the rest of the pieces cleaned up and carried them all down to the house and into the basement. I started painting a couple of the pieces just to see what the color is going to look like. I need to get a thin brush to be able to paint the slots. I went with a darker gray. I am hoping if all goes well I may be able to run a lap by the end of the weekend.

 

[MrFlippant]

I'm pretty sure the distance is the same for the pit lanes as for the XLC.

 

[Kellerkind]

Hello and welcome GR.
Wow! This seems to become a very enjoyable track! Looks like a lot of fun! Will follow this threat closely!
Regards Jens

 

[-GR-]

Thanks guys.

I wanted to post an update of the progress so far and I promise I will post up some pictures here in the next day or two. I figured seeing painting being done isn't anything special.

I got the last couple of flipper assemblies built. Also got the last couple of recesses for the sensors routed out. I should have moved the pit entry a little further to the left as I had to put the sensor for pit entry into the track piece to the right of it. Not a big deal and with it being recessed it fits under the joiner piece, so I routed a slot for the wires to run.

I got 2 coats of paint on all of the pieces so far and started sanding them. Will sand the rest of the pieces tonight and then put the third coat of paint on. I am hoping to be putting on some copper tape tomorrow morning. I also pulled the base cover off of the APB so I could see how those sensors were and what I was up against when it comes time to separate those and it doesn't look like it will be too bad. Those two sensor strips are the last two recesses I need to rout but I wanted to wait till I am almost done so I am not moving it around too much and chance messing up the APB.

 

[-GR-]

I got a good bit of progress done on the track tonight. Got the fourth coat of paint on all but one track piece and also started laying copper tape. Here are some pics.

 

[MrFlippant]

Great looking work!

 

[Rakete]

Very nice!!! Wish I had those skills.

Regards,

-- Rakete --

 

[johnsxr8]

Looks nice, can't wait to see the finished result

 

[-GR-]

I spent most of the morning taping as much as I could. Then I started on wiring the APB to the track and also doing the lane changers for the pits. It was definitely time consuming and other then the first pit bay lane changer acting goofy it is all working and the APB is counting laps also. I know I read somewhere about poking small holes into the copper tape at a tape joint to make the joint conduct. Seems like it doesn't always have a great connection. I know me moving the track bits around doesn't help and maybe once I get things situated in their place and burnish the tape again it will be better.

Here are some pics of todays progress. I am hoping the rest of the lane changers go a little quicker. I also got the rest of the lumber to add the extra 4' to my current table. The track is going to have to be raised about an inch and a half off the table to give clearance to the solenoids and the track joint bolts.

 

[MrFlippant]

Looks good!
On the tape joins, if burnishing really well doesn't help, your next thing is to solder the joint itself. This usually ruins the adhesive, though, so I'd probably go right to installing another power tap on the piece. I'm not sure which piece(s) you're joining in this fashion, though.

 

[Kellerkind]

GR, ...looks great, you work with topspeed! Are you planning to do some scenery? Regards Jens

 

[injectorman]

Nice to see the Scorpius design lane changer assembly design.
Nice documentation for others wanting to go routed. There is no other way.

 

[-GR-]

I will work on scenery come winter time when I have a little more time.

I almost got to a point to where I was going to say screw it and put the rest of the track together without lane changers and tighten the flippers in place and run it that way. Reason being is because the scaley corner lane changers while they have both sensors it is a little tight to try and get one of the sensors removed and also with it having the jack for the wire connection going to the solenoids. I went outside and did a few other things to cool off and then went back down and was able to remove a sensor successfully and will keep chugging away at it.

It is getting to be very tedious and time consuming doing these lane changers. I have three done so far and am working on flippers 4 and 5 which are on separate turns but using the same sensor board.

I have been thinking about what to do with the flipper that is acting goofy and that is the first one I did with the separated lane sensor further away from the pc board. I am using 26 gauge speaker wire to do all the wiring with. I am going to pick up some shielded/twisted wire this week and will try that. I would like to get the track up and running to really test it out. Once nice thing about having the removable sections at the lane changers. Although the pit lane piece is pretty large considering it alone is 8' and the corner before it needs to be attached due to the lane change sensor so it makes for a large piece to work on.