rebate bit

[tolonges]

i was about to order one from slot car corner
but the postage seems to be a bit too much for a small item like that.
is there any where else i could get one ?

[The Old Jaybird]

This is one of the items you just have to bite the bullet on in building a wood track with a braid recess. If you take good care of it, you can resell it and recoup most of your money when you are done using it. Keep it sharp, don't drop it on a concrete floor. The SCC item is high quality and stays very sharp with careful usage. Consider when you are using it you are only "routing off" a shallow groove 3/4" wide x about .040 deep or so, it cuts like a hot knife thru butter.

TOJ

[waaytoomuchintothis]

You can always cut whatever you want with a conventional bit or combination of bits. There's nothing that says you need to make the finished cut in one pass, afterall.

Just remember, the only enemy your bit has is heat, so pay attention.

[tolonges]

it is not the price of the bit ,its the postage i am so pissed off about .

[RichD]

This is always a problem when you order a small item. You might feel better if more stuff was included in the order, the postage would probably be the same. Are you sure you don't need a nice roller, controller holders would be nice, how about some driver's stations?

[smithspeedway]

Where are you located? (Shipping the bit to)

[Nor Cal Mike]

As Waytoomuch said, it can be done without the special bit. I would add that if you are using a fence to guide the router, a second pass along the fence with a 3/4 dado bit would do the job just the same. Changing between bits on one router would be way too wieldly but if you had two routers with the same diameter base you could just pick up the second router make a second pass and then move the fence down the line to cut the next section.

Another option, If you don't plan to build another track, you can sell the bit when your track is finished to recoup much of you cost.

[SlotCarCorner]

Hello Tolonges,

We don't know where you are located but would guess somewhere outside of the United States. Unfortunately our online shopping cart is rather limited on shipping rate quotes for international customers. If you drop us an email (slotcarcorner [at] gmail.com) with your contact information and the item(s) you are interested in, we'll see what we can do about a more reasonable shipping cost.

[Scatman1]

Now that is good service.

[tolonges]

thank you slot car corner.
sending you an email .

[SlotCarCorner]

Hello Tolonges,

We haven't received your email - just sent you a PM on this board. Please check and get back to us.

Thank you.

[Stingray Racing]

You don't really need a special bit. I routed my braid recesses with a 3/4" straight bit and a jig I made for the router base. The base had pins about 2" apart that rode in the slot. The turns came out great too.

[tolonges]

my email acct has been compromised ... sorry for the delay

will try to rectify everything before i send emails again

[SlotCarCorner]

"You don't really need a special bit. I routed my braid recesses with a 3/4" straight bit and a jig I made for the router base. The base had pins about 2" apart that rode in the slot. The turns came out great too."

As Stingray Racing mentions, you can fabricate a 2-pin jig for your router base; however, be aware the gains in your corners will not be equal width. The gain to the inside of a given corner will be slightly wider than the gain on the outside of the corner. The tighter the corner radius and the greater the distance between the pins, the more pronounced the difference will be. The 1/16" wide "guard" portion of MDF that is between the slot and the inside edge of the braid is easy to overlook but very important (see accompanying diagram)! If the pins are too far apart and the corner radius is tight enough, the edge of the braid will be right up against the slot (i.e. no/minimum "guard") and the car's guide can foul the braid. If you decide to make your own jig, keeping the pins as close together as possible will minimize this effect. You might also consider using a slightly wider router bit (e.g. 13/16") which will only increase the width of each gain by 1/32") but provide a slightly wider "guard" in the corners. Your cars will never notice the difference. Regardless of how you route the gains, be sure to use a braid roller regularly to ensure the braid remains flat (particularly in corners where it is more prone to "rolling").

[SpeedyNH]

very good Steve. nice technical analysis. i was thinking the same thing.
-but you didn't make a chart of recess width vs. pin spacing vs. radius! where's the crossover point? (just kidding.)
of course, if you used trammel points or some other radius tool, this wouldn't be a problem but one would have to be really, really careful to match things up. there would undoubtedly be some knife and chisel work going on after the fact to clean things up unless you changed bits without breaking the setup and did them in succession with the slot.

guess i don't see any reason not to buy the correct tool. after all, you only build a track once and you use it for quite a while, across many cars. and you don't have to mod the router base to add add pins so it saves effort there, not to mention the corner errors. seems like a good investment to me.
speedy