Home Racing World

Today, I soldered little plates of copper to the power taps (16 of them), that will go into the countersinks in the track. The idea is to leave a level smooth surface to tape over. It worked. They are all done, and set in the track surface. After I set the elevations and finish screwing the track to the table there's nothing left but the fun stuff that goes fast- smoothing joints and slots between sections, painting and laying tape. With a little luck, by the time my cheesecake and Thanksgiving smooch arrives, I'll be racing! Pucker up, Kurt!

I'll be taking pictures more regularly from now on, and I'll put them here.

Sounds good. Look forward in seeing this beast.

Yeah, its starting to look like an amazing Thanksgiving for sure.

For the reopening of the track, I am only going to repaint the roadway, so we can be nostalgic about the days racing at Biggs until I get started in earnest on the scenery. What I have planned is complex, so it will look like Biggs track for a good while.

Had an awful day trying to get the power taps to work. Finally got it done, but it took all day to get 16 wires attached and live. I think Harry and I pissed off the same pixies. Long, long day. Back at it again tomorrow, and pictures to post.

Today, I tried a new tool to smooth the swelled joints, now that I have more or less re-cut the slots on both sides. It just didn't work. I'll have to figure something else out. The step from one side of the joint to the other is as much as 1/16 of an inch in one spot, which happens to be in a tight turn, so it would disturb the cars going around the turn pretty badly.

Also today, I discovered that the paint I had mixed for color just right doesn't dry hard, in fact, its a bit gummy. I found out when the belt sander nipped a spot where I had tested the paint, and it immediately came up and glued to the belt. I peeled paint up from the track when I examined it. It just becomes a rubber coating, not a primer at all. I'll call HD tomorrow and see what they think is going on. Maybe I had them put too much tinting in it and it made it too thick or something.

Bondo can be your best friend.

Maybe it is time to fill in the track joints completely and re-route them?

Tedious, but the end result would be a perfect transition?

And maybe enough with the Amish sanders and plug in that Binford 2000 belt sander?

". . . Amish sanders"

Would they be the horse-drawn ones, then?


David.

No, they are very low in horsepower :)

Thank you, thank you all. I'll be here all month...try the bratwurst!

Yep, Harry, that may still have to be done. I really thought I had it made until I started levelling this thing and ran into all this. The old MDF didn't like the Bondo (or my Bondo is too old to work right), so I'm using Rockhard only on this one. When set, its nearly the same, except when its really thin, the Rockhard doesn't chip. The Rockhard just routs and sands cleaner on this old stuff for some reason.

After Thanksgiving I may see if I can put together a short version of what a guy is up against when he tries to restore an old MDF track that has been stored a long time. When I restored the Imperial Red track years ago, the wear on it more or less made up for the misaligned joints, plus it was made of particle board, which is a lot different from MDF when a little age is on it.

'Amish was his long lost twin brother, Jon.