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They just might work as a flute, but they're kinda small..........

So today I quit waffling on whether or not to replace ALL the track braid. It's ALL gone!

I put in a good 7 hours today! That's like a full week of work for me! My original plan for the day was to start rerouting the braid recess with just a skim cut to prepare it for new paint and then new braid. To be honest it went so fast I finished pulling off all the old braid and rerouting the braid recesses on the entire track! The skim cut really was the way to go. I know from experience I would have spent at least a week trying to hand scrape and clean the recesses in preparation for gluing down the new braid, and the final outcome would not have been nearly as good. I do still have one area of concern, the underpass. My router will not fit under the banked overpass, and Kirk Smith already warned me about trying to remove the bank or any portion of it. I have an idea that I will research tomorrow.

Here's some more things I learned today:
1. Don't use staples on anything that may have to come off in the future. It's a B removing staples from wood!
2. When routing braid recesses on a finished track use a router with a small diameter base. The smaller diameter base will keep the recess more consistent through portions of the track that are not perfectly level.
3. Don't ever build an overpass with less than 12 inches of clearance!

Here's why cleaning up the braid recess with a router is the way to go:

It probably would have taken me a week to clean all the braid recess by hand. I did the whole track in 7 hours!

I've been kinda waffling back and forth over re-braiding the entire track or just the new section. After performing some closer inspections today I've decided to bite the bullet and re-braid the entire track. A lot of the existing braid is still good but, the braid adhesive is so old, and has been subjected to so many chemicals in the form of cleaning solvent and tire compound, the adhesive has pretty much lost its adhesive qualities. It many spots it is just kind of an icky goo under the braid, and in other spots it is a crispy, brittle, thin coating. After much research I am going to perform a light skim cut of the braid recess using my special bit for that task. I have been asking a professional track builder for suggestions all during this renovation process and he recommends a skim cut, just a couple thousandths or so to get down to clean wood for the new braid. I can use my router to do this everywhere but under the overpass. I will have to clean the recesses in that area by hand as best I can. Using the router will be much quicker than trying to clean the recess by hand! After the skim cut I will have to re-paint the braid recess, but I still think it will be a better and quicker process than just trying to clean the recess.

So here's an extra credit question: What will these two parts be used for? (A hint: I will need a total of 6 of these).

I would like to suggest we move the Halloween race date to Friday October 30th.  Does anybody have any objections?

Here's some great race photos taken by Howie:

So far, counting me and I will have to leave at 7 pm if it's a Saturday race, we have 2 for sures and 3 maybes.

Thanks Doc.

The photos all ended up on Facebook........unfortunately....

Well Doc there's only so much I can do...............

Here's a closer look at the hook-ups. Thanks to Beau for the cool discs for correct controller wire connection.

I get questions about how to connect the controller alligator clips on these hook-ups. Here's a photo of the clips connected with the boots pulled back:

The hook-ups work fine even with the boots in place.

Thanks Bob for an AWESOME race! That really was a lot of fun!

Stan, if you don't have the 25 ohm brake pot on your controller don't use it for the heavier 1/24 cars. If you have a NEO or your network is for 1/32 cars it probably won't have very good response for 1/24. I know Zack has had issues with  a Difalco controller set up for 1/32 cars and replaced the heat sink with the larger one. These heavy cars get controllers hot!