Copper Tape

[Courtney s]

Where is the best source for the Venture Copper tape with the conductive adhesive?
I picked up a wood track and I need to reassemble it and do some repairs.

[slothead]

I got the copper tape for my tracks at a local store that sells stuff for making stained glass art pieces. It's a popular art hobby and if we have a place like that here in central Maine you probably have one in your area too.

Others will likely know online sources.

[steeveew]

Ebay.

[Mickey thumbs]

Professor Motor sells it as Parma brand but it’s a repackage of Venture. Possibly cheaper through stained glass sources but haven’t checked recently

[FC47]

Courtney, have a look on the web at SunshineGlass

[Courtney s]

Thanks all

[mattb]

Conductive adhesive is probably not on the standard stained glass version of Venture tape. Regular tape is not hard to find, but. Better make sure Venture even makes that style of tape. It's not needed for stain glass, only for alarm systems. Paul used conductive tape and knows a supplier and he may see this and chime in.

[RichD]

You only need conductive adhesive if you are going to lay the tape over regular track rails, otherwise you would probably solder leads directly to the tape. If you go to Amazon and do a search for Venture copper tape you will get plenty of hits for that and also for other brands that definitely have conductive adhesive. I did have a source for Venture tape bookmarked, but I was unable to find it.
Although copper tape works well if you lay it down properly, for heavy club use you might consider switching to copper braid. Back when contact cement was used to stick down the braid that was a pain in the neck. Now we use 3M double sided tape, which is about as easy to use as copper tape and much more durable. Copper tape wants to crinkle when you lay it around a tight corner and will need to be burnished to get the crinkles flattened out.

[Frank9129]

I have used conductive tape for several years. I get my tape for StewMac. It is actually Guitar tape.
A break in the tape is repaired by just cutting 1/2" to 1' of tape, burnish it down and race. That simple.
When you have kids around your routed track you get a few breaks every race, not to mention dead spots.

[RichD]

If you pull on the tape as you lay it down it will be likely to develop cracks later on. You can also get cracks where the tape crosses a track joint. On wood tracks cracks can be repaired by putting a short piece over the crack and punching holes through both layers with an X-acto knife or a wire nail. Another fix is to use a CircuitWriter conductive ink pen. If there is a place on the track where the cars tend to crash a lot the guide flags will eventually chew up the tape and a section will need to be replaced.

[chappyman66]

Matt is right. I built my track with copper tape coated with conductive adhesive. Mine came off Amazon, 4 pack for $11 or so.

I laid it with a tape tool except some tight corners I did by hand. I broke it a few times and just burnished the new end down. I haven't had any trouble running for almost two years.

[mattb]

I used tape on my first two tracks and didn't have much trouble with breaks. My track was in a heated basement and it stayed at a constant temperature. I had maybe 1 or 2 breaks a year. The second track I built in the early 80's and the guy that has it is still using it with the same tape I put on it 30-35 years ago. I didn't stretch it tight anywhere and I applied it all by hand on a fresh painted latex gloss surface. I never had trouble with breaks or damage. I would spray a little WD40 on brushes and run a few laps if it sat for a week or two without being used. that always assured good conductivity. There are a few club tracks that get serious use and have no issues with tape.

[RichD]

Our oldest taped track is now 14 years old and it only developed a couple of cracks this past year. Another taped track developed cracks much sooner, so in that case the tape had not been laid down properly. In addition that is our most challenging track, so there tends to be a lot more crashes. Eventually the track had to be moved and at that time the tape, which had many, many repairs , was replaced with braid.