|
my track
I just found this site and thought I'd share my track building experience. First, a short story. When I was a kid, I had one of those slotless race tracks and my friends and I raced for hours. Then came Atari and it was hard to get new cars or parts, so 6 cars became 4, which became 2, and then one and finally the last pickup shoes were completely shot and that was it. Twenty years passed and then I saw these cool tiny remote control cars at an airport in Japan. It was kind of expensive, but I got one (Yen seem like monopoly money anyway). I now have a zip zap as well. I have a movie of the zip zap racing on my track, but it may be too big for this site.
Track info (everything was bought at home depot). The design is based on distant memories of the slotless set up I used to have. The track is made of 1/8" thick particle board (the kind that is rough on one side and smooth on the other). The rough side gives great traction for the cars - unlike dusty hardwood floors which are great for doing endless donuts. The particle board comes in 2'x4' pieces (I think they were $1.87 ea). These can be easily cut with a coping saw (I had one, but they're about $8). The tricky part was the guard rail. I originally tried to use vinyl tubing (I see others on this site have had success with this). It was easy to bend around the curves and seemed fine, but when I raced the cars, they tended to get stuck to it and not bounce off. I got some plastic window trim that works great (about $2.50 for 8'). It gives a hard flat surface that the cars can slide against without losing much speed. I used 1" machine screws coming up through the bottom of the track as posts for the guard rail. For most of the turns, the trim is flexible enough to just bend around, but for sharper turns, notches can be cut in the back to create more bending. I found a $3 can of grey paint in the paint discard section to make the track look more like a roadway. The lanes are all 8" wide (a little less due to guard rail width). The total cost of materials was about $30. Now that I know how to do it, I could probably make the track (no painting) in one afternoon. Hope this is useful.
|
Threaded Mode
