The time has come, please teach me.

Zack, having a routed track at home is a real joy, even if all you use it for is practice. As for crossovers, they're not that hard to do, and if you're interested in having your lanes equal in length (or as close as possible), crossovers are essential. Otherwise, lanes will vary (sometimes widely) in length. I have the bits you'll need to route both the slot and the "gains" (slight depressions on either side of the slot if you use braid instead of copper tape), as well as a spacing gauge that fits on the bottom of your router to keep lane spacing consistent. A kit for making routing extremely easy used to be for sale by a guy in Vancouver, Canada. That stuff is (was?) currently being sold by Greg Gaub in Washington State, according to this info: https://www.slotforum.com/forums/index. … wforum=415

I have some leftover Sintra (the plastic you put in the first routed slot to guide the routing of the rest of the lanes), that you're free to borrow. I'm sure that a lot of the guys—including me—would be happy to help if and when you get going on your track.

Thanks for the insight guys, I had not thought about the crossover from the stand point of lane length. Makes sense. I am however still thinking a large mostly flat layout would make my life a lot easier for the first time. Only having a couple seams to contend with sounds like it would be a nice way to go.

I can see where planning would help a lot. My gut tells me I would do best by just building the table, and drawing something up. I like the idea of using a flex strip and trying to do the corners somewhat organically. Seems like it would be more "realistic" and possibly add some challenges.

I have space for a pretty large layout I think, I will have to measure it out.

Thanks for all the offers to borrow specialized equipment, I may take you up on it once I get my research sorted!

Zack

If you're thinking flat you should go out and see Monte's. It's flat with no overpass. Then see Stan's, it's mostly that with an overpass. Two more options, both lots of fun.

One of the guys in my old club decided it would be "fun and challenging" to have squeeze areas on his track, where the slots were close together and passing wasn't possible. One of those two things was correct; but it wasn't the FUN part. A track that's got a few tight curves and maybe some esses is great, but remember that the fun comes from RACING, not from constantly trying not to crash into somebody else.

I have Luf's kit: a tape laying tool and a lexan strip with the nail holes drilled in it. It should make constructing a track super easy.

My track was quick and dirty- it was the first one I ever made and I built it in less than a week to fit a specific (small) space in the house using, um..., "experimental" materials for a router guide.  It worked OK but needed a bit of massaging to be presentable.  At this point I have tweaked it enough to host a race night or three and it has played to fairly positive reviews by the participants.

All the suggestions above are spot on- figure out your intentions (race hosting vs. tuning and development), think about your space available and the sight lines/marshalling requirements, commit to a layout, buy some lumber, borrow a router and track kit, and get to it.  Depending on its size and how much time you can throw at it, it's possible to knock them out in a reasonable timeframe.  They are actually pretty easy to build and they are super fun to run on.

As as Bill alluded to above, I am planning a new track build now that I have "finished" my basement and would be looking to pass along my current track to anyone who might be interested (keeping my power supply, driver stations, etc... though).  Odds are it will just get tossed, but if you're interested it would possibly re-shuffle my other domestic projects.

Chris

Zack, if holding club races is something you're interested in, don't let the number of tracks around influence your reason for the track build. Through the years NASTE racers have experienced times where there were so many tracks there were only one or maybe two races on any one track during the official point series season. Scheduling can be worked out to accommodate racing at a lot of different tracks! My philosophy has always been, the more the better!

Al, I think your track is great use of the space you have. I definitely understand the desire to have the lane lengths pretty close, in theory this should provide the closest racing.

I was simply thinking of a larger simple layout because I have a large 2 car garage that I never have cars in. (all my toys sit at my shop). Plus I was thinking that this would reduce the complexity of building it for my first track.

I would like to have it up against the wall, so I think only going 4' deep is probably the best bet, but I could have an "L" layout something like 20 long and 4 on the short side....I think.

How much track feet are you guys running before doing power taps?

Zack

Zach, one thing to consider about an "L" shaped track is visibility. If you are considering an "L" shape with the long side up against a wall as well as the short side, you will have the potential for a really bad blind spot. This is due to the need for turn marshals to go into the inside of the "L" to re-slot cars. My last track was an "L" shape, but with the driver's stations located on the outside of the "L"'s longside (the cars travelled away from the drivers or towards them when negotiating the "short side"). Configured like this, for the most part, turn marshals did not block drivers line of sight when turn marshalling.

When it comes to power taps on a track, I consider lap length, the type of power or power supply, and the types of cars to be raced, and the number of lanes the track has. Any track with a lap length of over 40 feet I would break into quarters with a power tap in each quarter. My last track had a lap length of 84 feet and I used four power taps spaced equally around the track. My HO track has a lap length of approximately 30 feet and I used two taps spaced half around. My considerations for power taps are probably overkill, but I have raced on many tracks with "power issues" and it is really a fun killer! With that said, the track I just got has only two power taps and all reports were that it was just fine. Let your conscience be your guide, knowing that too many is WAY better than not enough!

Thanks guys!

Regarding the visibility. My vision is that the drivers station would be on the outside of the short "L" leg, have the view down the long portion of the track. I feel like as long as the track isn't too high, you should be able to see the full distance just fine, especially if I don't have a lot of obstructions from elevations and overpasses.

I appreciate all the input. I am getting motivated to make this happen. I realized I could probably get the thing going really easily on my RC Battery Power supplies, and one of my chargers will even work as a voltage and amperage regulator. So that is one expensive item to tick off the list to get going!

Zack