On this page you will find my complete step by step assembly of PistonHead Raceway. I hope you find this helpful if you are going to build your own home track.
Construction Of PistonHead Raceway Page 2
Braid, Paint, Wiring, and Timing
After debating between braid or copper tape, I decided that the braid was worth the extra effort. The braid recesses must be routed after all slots are cut. I purchased the special cutter (Illust#8) required for this on EBay, or you can have a tool grinding or machine shop make one for you. Now that all lanes are routed I preceded to prime the racing surface prior to braiding with grey oil base primer. If you plan to use epoxy as your finished surface, you must use an epoxy primer. I primed the braid recesses as well but not the slot, and now we are ready to commence with the braiding.
We left the braid slightly below the track surface, about .010”. The braid that I will be using is standard non-magnetic 24-7-36 1/4" track braid. Red high strength contact cement was used to glue down the braid and was applied with small plastic oiling cans purchased from Canadian Tire (Illust#9). I left about a foot of braid hangover each end of all sections( Illust#10) so as to allow easy access when I have to join all the braid together. Once all the braiding was completed I lightly scuffed the prime with fine sand paper to remove any excess glue that got on the track. I then taped off each lane and used a tack rag on the entire surface (Illust#11) prior to our finishing coat. I guess some people prefer to apply the finished coat and then do all braiding. I am not sure what is the correct method, but this allowed me to correct any mistakes before applying the finishing coat.
For the finishing coat I choose to use a medium grey Melamine Oil Based paint which is used for cabinets and bathrooms etc. This has a egg shell finish and is supposed to be extremely hard when cured. I applied 2 coats with a sponge roller, and sanded between coats for a smooth finish (Illust#12). My next step will be assembling the outer and inner guardrails.
For the guardrails I choose poly-ethylene or sometimes know as puck-board. This ranged in price from $24.00 as high as $96.00 dollars (Cdn) for a 4x8 sheet of the same product. It also comes in rolls of various lenghts and width and thickness. I went with 1/8th thickness for easy bending. I purchased a 1' x 100' roll (Illust#13) for $60.00(Cdn), but was quoted as high as $300.00, so it pays to do a little shopping around. Needed was about 160' to do both inner and outer rail. After ripping the roll on a table saw into one 7"x100' section to be used as the outer retaining wall, which left me a 5"x100' section for the inner wall. I put the outside corner height at about 4" and the inner wall and straights at about 2" . By cutting the board this way I limited myself on making all heights exact, because the track has different elevations. If your track is flat, this method should work just fine. I ended up with a few spots where the height is not exact. To remedy this I ran a 2" block (marked with a felt tip Illust#14)around the affected area, removed the board and cut with a jigsaw, and re-attached. I originally put the end corner height at 4", and the straight and inside corners at 2". I wasn't pleased with the finished look as the corners looked to high, so I used the above method of a block and lowered the to 3", and was happy with the final appearance (Illust#15, Illust#16, Illust#17).
Now onto lane stripping. I tried using my Buegler pin-stripping tool with 1/4 wheel, but I just could not get a satisfactory result. The material went on thick and then thin in spots, so I decided to use 1/4" vinyl Pro-Stripe tape. I am not yet sure if this will have any affect on the cars or lift off, but I will soon find out. I just used random colours that I thought would stand out. (Illust#21) (Illust#22)
Wiring
I used a #10 wire to completely wire the track. I used 2 taps (Illust#18) in the track about 35' apart which evened up the power nicely. The wiring schematic that I used was from http://members.rogers.com/fergette/ATW.html . I purchased my fuse block, toggle switches, and terminal strips and jumpers from Radio Shack as well as all connectors. My power supply is a LOKO Model # DPS-400GL (Illust#19) which delivers an adjustable amount of voltage from 4 to 18 volts, and 18 amps continious and max to 30 amps. This works well as you can turn down the voltage for younger drivers and also break in motors if you so desire.
Each driver station is equipped with a toggle switch to reverse the car direction (Illust#20), three 1/4" bolts to attach a controller and also a three prong plug to connect the controller. I inserted two small plastic containers to house a small oil and tire glue applicator. I then covered the entire driver stand with the remaining puck board and labelled each station as per lane colour. It should be relatively easy for clean up by using this material.
Timing
I purchased the timing system (Illust#22) from Trakmate located in Surrey, British Columbia. Listed below are some of the product features. The system installed easy and works flawlessly. I make an overhead light bar using 5 automotive dome lights (Illust#21), which is powered by my track power supply.
- Supports Lap and Timed Races and Lane Rotation
- Works with Desk Tops and laptops
- Hardware insures accurate timing even with background applications running or with program minimized
- Connects to Com port leaving your printer port free
- Sound -"Ready GO", "1 Lap remaining" etc.
- Supports 1- 8 Lanes
- Relay to control track power
- Sorts racers according to position during race
- Displays - Lap Times, Best Lap, Median, lag/interval time
- Print summary and lap times
- Enter racers names only once
