homemade test track

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davet
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homemade test track

Post by davet »

I've had several inquiries about a track I had pictured in a thread. Maybe it will work for others.
both pieces are hard plastic and from Menards.

1) The wide base has woodgrain texture on one side and smooth on the other. The SKU # is 4179944. The bar code number is 6 49377302708.

2) The center strip is some kind of plastic trim I found at Menards. SKU #4179864. Bar code # is
6 4937730251 7

Directly under the center strip on the bottom of the base I screwed an eye bolt in and tied a rope to it. I place a heavy weight on the floor and center the eye bolt over it. Tuck the rope under the heavy weight and you can raise/lower the top to whatever height u want then pull the rope down tighter or let it up some to change the radius of the bend. You can adjust the pull on the transition by letting a little rope out from under the weight or pull it down tight to make a sharp transition. You can see a portion of the round/brown weight sticking out in the pic.
If you raise the ramp up enough (over 3 feet or so) you'll need to place a yard stick or similar height item under the end of the first section so it still mates up with the second section. You could also pull the rope down tighter and make a sharper bend which will help even out the seam.
After each run I lay the yardstick or level or other straight edge along the center strip at the seam to make sure it stays straight. Where the 2 center strips meet at the seam you should file a little taper on the leading edges of the second center strip so the car doesn't have a problem.
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Stan Pope
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Re: homemade test track

Post by Stan Pope »

Nice! :)
Stan
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LightninBoy
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Re: homemade test track

Post by LightninBoy »

I love seeing these kinds of solutions that are cheap and easy to build. I bet the scout had a blast running the car down this track.

As an extra bonus, if you lower the incline to about 3 inches, then you will have a nice implementation of a "friction track" that I discussed here ...

http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 798#p73798
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