No work done this weekend...

I had hoped to mess with the track elevation(s) this 4 day weekend, but that didn't happen. Friday had guest until around 3 am Sat morning. Saturday had a pig roast and bonfire. Sunday had the big fireworks festival. Today...recovery.

However, Dan says he's found a couple of R4 curves to cover the AWOL curve.
Should get more going on the track this week.

Preliminary search and rescue for the missing R4 curve...came up empty handed. Suspect gremlin taking piece to piss me off since I was finally getting to build after all this time.

Track down...

Later on the night that I got the lights bought and hung I pulled out all the track pieces and started getting it laid out on the table. It was so much easier putting the track together standing up. I didn't miss being hunched over or on my knees on the concrete floor.

I actually gave my Dad the wrong length for the table when he drew it all up. It was suppose to be only 17' long. However, the extra foot on the end in picture #1 below will allow me to place my monitor in the left corner of the table for the timing system. So, a mistake that paid off for once.

I plan on trying to create an elevation(s) somewhere within the layout. I've got a couple of ideas swirling around, but until I actually do it and run a car around to see how it will actually work...they remain just ideas.

Photo #1

See anything wrong in Photo #1? I put all this track in a box and upon taking it all back out to build the layout I had a R4 curve go AWOL on me. It couldn't be a piece that I had 5 extras of...could it?

The box did end up on the side of the basement that everything was piled up in and I'm sure it fell out into the mess. I'll have to do a search and rescue. Unless, the track gremlins are playing a nasty trick on me. However, Dan, one of our club members, said he might have one laying around his basement for me.

Photo #2

I'm thinking the outer section of this end might become the elevated section of the track.

So, next the big task of wiring the 4 driver stations, the track for the variable power supply and who knows how many power taps around the track. I'm not looking forward to this part, but I've got several of our local Cincy Slot Rods Club boyz ready to help. I just need to get the funds for the supplies together.

About 2 weeks later...LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!

I seriously needed to improve the lighting in the basement. A single light bulb wasn't going to cut it. Unless, I planned to do nothing but night racing.

My Dad recommended the same 75 watt 8 foot dual bulb fluorescent lights that he had in his for woodworking. He also advised me to get nothing less than the daylight bulbs for them.
I checked them out at Home Depot where he got his and about choked. If I got two of these lights with the more expensive daylight bulbs...I'd be spending more than I just dropped on the table.

So, they had 4 foot versions of the same light, but only at 32 watts. Then I found out they didn't come with a power cord because they were meant to be hard wired. That put another $15.00 on the tab for 2 power cords to connect to them.

I just could do it by the cost and decided to by 2 of the best 4 foot shop lights that Home Depot carried and the daylight bulbs. The shop lights came with a plug and all the needed parts to hang them other than the hooks I screwed into the floor joist.

Below it the BEFORE with just the one light bulb.

Below is the AFTER with the 2 shop lights fired up.

It turned out that the choice I made not only worked great, but kept around $60.00 in my wallet too over getting the 2 8 footers. The picture doesn't capture the night and day-light (pun intended) difference that these daylight bulbs make in the basement.

DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT ON YOUR FLUORESCENT BULBS!!!!

Pay the extra couple of bucks for the daylight bulbs. Anything less is just that...less light. If the bulbs don't say Daylight Bulbs on the packaging look for the Color Rating. It should be 6500K or K6500. I can't remember the number / letter order. If the bulb has this rating it is the same thing as the daylight bulbs.

The 2 lights are good enough for my taste, but I may add a third one in between the 2 I have now down the road.

Day 2

(alarm ringing in the background)

I roll over and turn it off.

Stretching..."!#$&@! that hurts!"

(phone rings)

Dad: You alive?

Me: Barely.

Dad: We doing this or not?

Me: Hell yeah!!!

I had waited this long that I wasn't about to stop and let my body tell my head, "Are you freaking crazy!?!" "You want to move today?"

Once my Dad arrived we got started on the legs and got them all in place. We thought having the frame up off the floor and on top of a couple of saw horses and a pair of bar stools would make it easier on the aching bodies. Wrong!!! It was crawling under, stepping over, and squatting here and there even with the frame up off the ground.

After all the legs were done and a nice homemade lunch by the wife we snaked all the OSB pieces down stairs. Which confirmed that there was no way in hell a 4'x8' sheet would snake around the bend of the staircase.

Now this table was huge and getting it as square as possible was like watching a Three Stooges movie minus Larry. The table measured 7.5' x 18' and a light shove on this corner and that corner was a chore without going too far with the shove. However, after 10 minutes or so we called it close enough and started laying all the top pieces and clamping them into place. After lining them up the best we could we screwed done one end and called it a day.

We packed up all the tools except for the drill and clamps. Got everything into the backseat and trunk of my Dad's car and he left. I got in a hot shower to try and easy my aches and pains, but more importantly to get the stank off of me.

I did nothing to the table on Monday, but over Tuesday and Wednesday got all the top pieces drilled, countersunk and screwed into place. I figure the whole table has around 180 or so screws in it. The table is rock solid and my big ass can crawl on my hands and knees across it from one end to the other without an issue.

The best thing about being done was that neither of was had a mishap. Well, except for the drill bit I broke off in one of the 2"x4"s. Sorry Dad.

Day 1

Everything on the side of the basement where the track was going to be built got shoved to the other side of the basement. Can anyone say, Yard Sale?

My Dad had taken my doodle for my idea of the framing for the table and made it stronger, better and cheaper. He's a draftsman and woodworker...need I say more?

He drafted out the framing of the table to be the most sound table using the least amount of wood. He had the parts list down to...10 @ 2"x4"x96", 4 @ 2"x4"x12' and so on.

He used 3 different length screws and knew how many of each we needed. He figured out how the 4'x8' sheets of OSB had to be cut so they would not only cover the framing, but would fit down the stairs to the basement since they double back.

All of the above was great and ended up saving me money from not buying more wood that what was actually needed. He even figured what pieces were to be cut from which length of 2"x4" to make the cut waste as small as possible.

I picked him up around 9 am on a Saturday morning and we headed for Lowe's with his list in hand. We had to get their rental truck to get this all home and figured an early start would get the truck without a problem. However, the truck was already out and not expected back for around 50 minutes. That wasn't a problem because it would take that long to inspect and choose all those 2"x4"s for straightness. Plus, I had to get the boys to cut down 4 sheets of OSB to the correct sizes we needed. It also gave my Dad some time to help a couple of younger guys make sure that they picked the right wood for a project they were working on that day. He said, "I don't work here, but I can give you my opinion and if I was wrong that's okay because I won't be there." The guys gave a good laugh and were glad for the help.

All the wood picked, cut and loaded on the truck we headed home. We unloaded all of it into the garage and took the truck back. We headed over to a Sears Hardware store for the screws. It pays to shop around folks. Lowe's had the best deal on the wood because of a sale going on that week, but they couldn't come close on the screws. They didn't have a box of screws under $7.00, but Sears had what we needed for under $5 per box.

Once we got back home we unloaded all of my Dad's tools and setup his chop saw. We slid all the 2"x4"s via the basement window and attacked. No nails on this job. Everything was drilled, countersunk and screwed together for strength and easier dismantling if needed down the road.

We put in 7 to 8 hours that day getting the frame work done minus the legs. In the picture below we had aleady used around 100 screws. However, the knees, ankles, legs and backs were killing us at this point and so we called it a day. The plan was to call each other around 10 am Sunday to see if either of us could still move and if so we would continue with the build.

It began with an idea...

I got the Scalextric Track Designer that came with the Scalextric RMS Timing System. Little did I know that the RMS System has issues and I'd end up chucking it. However, the designer program kept my hopes alive as I collected more and more track. I'd revise and revise again. Until, I came up with this 4 lane layout that I really liked on paper. So, the adventure was on to get all the pieces I would need to create the big track.

At first, I really wanted the Scalextric Classic Chicane Squeeze sections (black area of track) to make for some interesting racing. Who will chicken out and check up on their speed?

Who would go balls to the wall and hope for the best?

However, when I got all the pieces and set it up on the basement floor these classic pieces became an issue. No, not because of the possible carnage, (I planned on that...lol) but because of the depth of the slot. I had too many cars with guides that drug and chattered through that section. The worst was when I put my Slot It Lancia on the track. The front of the chassis caught the edge of the Classic track and flipped end over end. At that point those pieces were out of the picture.

I ended up replacing them with the Scalextric Sport Chicane pieces that are not nearly as extreme, but will still require a decision to be made by the drivers at that point of the track.

Plus, the guide depth issue disappeared.