pre taped braid radius

[Billy boy]

does anyone know how tight a radius is possible with pre taped braid. i have two turns with almost scalextric R1 turns. thinking of going from tape to braid but worried about not being able too get the tight radius done. thanks, bill

[stumbley]

Billy, braid will stretch more easily than tape, so it can get into a tighter radius. You do need to work VERY SLOWLY though.

[mattb]

Whatever you can tape the braid will do better and smoother.

[SpeedyNH]

yeah, it took a few tries at first to get the tape to go around the 90 degree 2" radius corners on the inside of my test track's chicane, but it worked.
i wonder how the SCC sticky-tape affects the braid under the same conditions. eventually i'll find out.

edit: forgot to say, if you can go with braid, definitely do it- the taped braid can't be anywhere Near as bad as fighting laying and maintaining the copper tape! LOL
ask Dickie (NH Dungeonracer). he's done a ton of 'em with it, although likely not tight corners. he's our guru on a lot of things.
any permanent track that i've built has braid. duh. night and day difference, over time.
copper tape tracks turn into a maintenance nightmare, especially in places that are difficult to reach, per Murphy's Law. if temperature is stable, not quite as bad but...
a good friend of mine in FL (disabled) was a holdout, but even he ended up braiding his excellent track, for that very reason. we used to have to go in through the back window every week to solder patches onto the tape!

[Billy boy]

thanks for the info guys,much appretiated

[mattb]

Tape works fine, it's not that bad, it is economical and repairs are not hard. If you are on a budget or just doing something that may be temporary, go with tape and don't sweat it.
If you are doing a" for sure" permanent track and your budget allows it, use braid. I think laying pre-taped braid is actually easier than laying tape.

[Billy boy]

my track is taped but i seem to be chasing down and fixing breaks alot.

[RichD]

When inexperienced people lay down copper tape they tend to put tension on it to avoid having wrinkles. When you do that the tape is likely to crack later on even if the track is not subject to large changes in temperature. If a taped track is very technical there are likely to be a lot of crashes in some spots and the car's guide flags will eventually chew the tape up. One of our older tracks had both problems and had many patches before it had to be moved to another location. After the move the track was converted to braid. Another club track is a more flowing design and the tape was put down without any tension, it was about 13 years before there were a couple of spots that cracked.
Based on our experience if you are building a track that will see heavy club racing you would be better off using braid. Routing the recesses for the braid is easy if you use the special bit from Slot Car Corner. In the past the braid got stuck down using contact cement, that was a messy operation. On our newer tracks and for the two that got converted from copper tape 3M double sided tape was used with great results.

[Pappy]

I prefer the 3M transfer tape over contact cement. But if you use contact cement make sure to get the Gel Formula, it won't run all over the place.

[Billy boy]

Dr.D,great advice.I'm sure i was pulling to tight,my family calls me Mr. gorilla hands. It's been fine for the past years,me and the nerf guys have had a great time with it.But now i think im ready to commit to the braid. double b and his gang use braid and ive raced on there tracks and area 51. braid is the way to go. bob methe and roy carlin designed it and it has a great flow. i dont think i could make it better than it is.

[Billy boy]

This is what I’m working with.

[Billy boy]

[dinglebery]

Off topic, but I couldn't help - would you sell me a good handfull of those used tires you have in the left picture you posted? I need to complete a tire wall on my build.

[bobbyraz49]

I have a turn just like that and braid works great.

[Billy boy]

that info sealed the deal. braid has been ordered from the best,SCC. so who's coming over to help!LOL

[Pappy]

Hope you remembered to order the bit to route the recess.

I'm using Slot Car Corner braid on my new track too. I've built a lot of tracks and have used braid that was to narrow and braid that was to wide. Slot Car Corner braid is like the mama bear of braid, just right.