Stan Pope wrote:We have used full retired tempur-pedic pillows for some years successfully. This year I was tasked to fit 8 tracks, and only had 2 retired pillows. Time to subdivide those pillows!
Here is what I did:
1. form an "L-shaped" housing from 1/4" plywood (3-1/2 X 12") and 1X2" pine 12" long.
2. Chill the pillows so that they are stiff, then cut the pillows into 3"X2-1/2"X12" bricks with a freshly sharpened chef knife.
3. Attach the pillow bricks to the plywood with Gorilla Glue.
4. Duct tape along the center of the plywood and under each each side of the track with gentle compression of the brick against the end of the stop section rails.
Key design logic:
1. the plywood keeps the foam pressed down about evenly on all or the lanes. ... car's can't get under the foam.
2. 1X2 helps keep the plywood stiff and keeps the foam from being "pushed out the back."
3. Low profile (for visibility) and minimal incursion onto the braking surface.
I'm trying to visualize this. We have a 3-lane wooden Piantedosi track and I'm thinking of upgrading our stop section with something like this if I can get details worked out.
Are the two pieces joined along the 12" sides? Is that longitudinal with the track lane? I'm not sure how that would work.
Is the plywood piece horizontal and above the track surface, sandwiching the foam piece between it and the track surface, one per lane? Is the gorilla glue on the top of the foam or at the back end only?
Could you please provide a sketch? That would clear things up quite a bit.
For my project, I was thinking of something along the lines of having 4 lane dividers (2 between lanes and 2 outside of them) of 1/4" plywood, height to be determined, with a top piece of 1/4" or 3/8" plywood and an end piece of wood 2x4 or 4x4, with the 3 tempur-foam pieces boxed in, so to speak. Only the back end of the foam piece would be glued to the 2x4 or 4x4, allowing it to be compressed from the front by the cars. A width of 3" would allow for the foam to widen when squished from the end and still fit between the lane dividers (3-1/4" wide inside). The length of the lane dividers would be about 7" longer than the foam to prevent cars from deflecting upon first impact with the foam and interfering with cars in the other lanes or being sent off the track.
I just don't know how long the foam piece should be. I get a picture in my mind that you are using a 12" long section. Would that be enough to stop cars that are going full speed? I'm thinking of not rehabilitating the rubber stopping material (it ramps up and not the lane guide) and just using the tempur-foam as the stop. Is this idea not advisable?
What about longevity? How many races do you think your stops would last before needing to be replaced? At our Pack's annual Fun Day the track probably has 1000 to 1500 races during the day, and the actual Pinewood Derby is two weeks later. I would like to not have to replace the foam frequently....
What kinds of sources do you use for obtaining retired tempur-pedic pillows?
Thanks for any enlightenment you can provide!