New stop section for Pack track

DIY tracks.
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PWTom
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New stop section for Pack track

Post by PWTom »

This year, I wanted to have a better stopping system for our Pack's track. The old stop section was an ugly nightmare that frequently broke cars, bounced cars back onto the track and generally was a pain. Taking a few tips from the commercial systems and from a system Terry built, I built the following section:

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I made the sloped riser from plywood, then screwed a piece of lath to that. Then I glued Rubbermaid heavy duty drawer liner material to the lath. That way you can replace the lath with fresh and glue down new drawer material and not have to try and scrape off the old material.

The system worked great! Only one or two cars made it all the way to the stop and most stopped within a very short distance. I should have made the incline more gradual as some of the cars with knife-edge noses really gouged out the material. However it held up through many trial runs and 252 heats during the race!!!
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

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We built one similar to that last year. To slow the cars down on the ramp we purchased a roll of foam at Lowes that is used to on truck beds as a gasket between the truck cap and the bed. One side is sticky so it stays put. It is the exact width of the guide rail. When the belly of the cars hit that stuff they come to a fairly quick stop within about 12 inches. We never had a single car hit the end of the rail. Cost of the foam -- about $4.00.
Jeff Bittel
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PWTom
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

Post by PWTom »

Slotown, can you supply more details on the material?? I like the fact that it did not have to be cut for width.
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

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Not a problem. www.lowes.com and type in the following item number: 66789 . But sorry, price went up two dollars :?
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

I bought non-abrasive non-skid tape from MSC (p/n 00651372). 2" x 60 feet, $23.38. Yes, not cheap, but since its ment to be walked on it should hold up well to wooden cars scraping on it. http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PM ... &PMCTLG=00

I'm planning on adding ramps to my and the Pack's track soon.
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PWTom
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

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Pinewood Daddy, I bought something similar to that for our previous stop section and I was not impressed. The material seemed to quickly wear down and once it got a slight coating of graphite, it was fairly slick. We had cars slide on a 3 foot length, hit the bumper and slide all the way back to the track!! It was not pretty.

The rubbery material of the shelf liner really seems to grab hold of the cars without abrading the underside. Slotown's foam sounds similar with the advantage of not needing to be cut to width and it's self-adhesive.

Good luck with whatever you choose. Stopping these speeding bullets is just about as hard as making them go fast in the first place.
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Re: New stop section for Pack track

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

PWTom wrote:I bought something similar to that for our previous stop section and I was not impressed.
Thanks for the info. I'm planning on testing 1 lane first. I'll probably test the Lowes foam tape also.
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