AutoCAD drawing

[GTI]

I have a track layout that was intended for one space but unfortunately the space is narrower than what was originally designed. I'm wondering if I supply the DWG drawing if there is anyone that can help me modify the track to fit in a 4 foot wide space?? I also do not have any capabilities to do AutoCAD. I'm hoping to get this to a CNC shop to route out. I can e-mail the DWG file once I find someone to help out.

Thank you

[dinglebery]

Are you asking for it to be re-designed or scaled down?

[GTI]

It's an oval with an infield, so I'm trying to get the oval radius on both sides narrowed to fit the width limitation of 48 inches.

[War Eagle River]

CNC shop should be able to CAD whatever layout you want, that’s their job.

[GTI]

Yes, but this one has flippers and they don't really understand anything about tracks and flow.

[DRW-FJ40]

So I sent GTI a PM. I work in AutoCAD, Civil 3D all day long & this sounded like fun. I have a Carrera digital track so although I design roads for a living, I'm learning something new & I've dabbled in the idea of designing a digital wood track, always interesting to get into someone else's project and this one is pretty cool... more to come.

[GTI]

Here is what we came up with. I originally had a NINCO track that I took down and started my venture into RC rock crawlers. Since then I really missed the track. So this time around I'm doing a routed track, AC2Car with switches from Sillage that I acquired about 8 years ago. So I will have a switchable option to run oval for Legends and Midgets and road track to run all others. There are corner switches as well that drive the "best line" outside to inside. Hopefully everything works out. The neat thing is that every corner on the track is different. Thanks for looking-having fun!

[Pappy]

Your road course looks a lot like my track without the esses. I like it!

[slothead]

I love the look of your track design. You may need an adjustable voltage power supply for cars to be able to negotiate the tight radius turns. I love the Legend cars but found them twitchy on my 4 foot wide oval due to their short wheelbase before dropping the power to 10.4 volts.

[GTI]

Yes the plan is running AC2Car, so I'm using a 90W Lionel transformer adjustable from 5 to 18 volts.

[GTI]

So I was looking at your oval project, you used 1/2 inch MDF. How deep and wide did they route the slot? I was planning on 3/8 inch deep and 1/4 inch wide with 1/4 inch gutters on either side for the braid.

[slothead]

The final version of the track has the slots CNC routed 1/8th inch wide and 9/32 inch deep. The first attempt which was ruined by an operator error had the slot 3/8 inch but I lessened that by 1/32 of an inch for more stability. To me the track sections are noticeably stiffer with the slightly shallower slots leaving slightly more backing. Having 1/8th inch wide slots is universal (as I see it) and I think 1/4 wide slots is too much. I considered making the slots 5/32 inch wide in case they narrowed a bit while banking the corners but that wasn't an issue. 1/8th inch deep and 9/32 deep worked great for my slots.

FYI - I asked Luf (master track builder) if he thought 9/32 was too shallow and he replied all of his tracks have 1/4 inch slots, which is less.

[HO RacePro]

With the full understanding that you're trying to fit a decent layout in limited width, with your proposed layout I'm afraid marshaling the underpass will be difficult.

But it appears you can 'pull' the entire underpass just enough to get it out from under the raised track. Then if you install a wall you can keep from losing cars under the bridge.

Or you could simply have all the track on one level. You might want a thin wall to separating opposing sections of the track.

I would think you'd want your oval to all be on one level. In that case, if you want a portion of your track raised, I would suggest raising the infield.

Ed Bianchi

[GTI]

Hi Ed,

Thanks. Yes, I will have a wall on the underside down the back and around both of the corners. I had my plastic track similar to this as well and did have the wall on the outside borders of the under section. Marshalling is not really an issue being that I usually run solo. The reach to the back wall is a little under 4 feet and I do have grabbers as well. I originally had this on one level but my space is narrow. So 4 feet will be my limit. Thanks again.

[DRW-FJ40]

Looking forward to seeing this come alive. What I did was basically what GTI asked for which was to pull the back straight in (it was a single flat layout with no overlap) & adjust the radii on either side to work while maintaining the infield as is which resulted in the overlap on the back straight which is resolved by elevating the back straight.

[Dogsbody]

I went this route earlier in the year. I roughly designed the track in Illustrator and saved the file in a format that someone who knew CAD and they cleaned it up with the proper spacing and made a file that the CNC routing company could read. The beauty of it all was that the CNC company charged me $60 a sheet to do everything including the MDF (with a few redos to get the gains depth correct at no extra charge). This was for an 8 x 20 layout. Best $300 I've ever spent.

[HO RacePro]

Dogsbody,

Thanks for sharing what having your track CNC'd cost. Given that MDF retails for about US$20 per 4 x 8 foot sheet, that means you paid only about US$40 for the custom routing. I routinely drop that kind of money to buy take-out. Almost literally lunch money!

I'm rapidly coming around to the idea that hand-routing tracks is just not worth the bother. Not when you can get it done that cheap with only a CAD file in hand.

I'm seriously looking at building a small 4 x 8 foot 2-lane test track for my 1/32nd scale cars. I will look into whether I can get the MDF laminated with a melamine (Formica) surface. Once many years ago I had 6 HO track kits CNC'd for me with a melamine surface. Turned out very nice.

I'm curious though, what thickness MDF was used for your track and how deep were the slots and the "gains" (I assume those were your braid reliefs). You don't say explicitly that your track was built for 1/32nd. Was it?

And was your track cut out of the MDF sheets or is the track integral to them?

I'd love to build a bigger track, but I just don't have the space for it right now. Still a small test track will help a ton race-prepping my cars to run on the much larger IHSR club tracks hereabouts.

Ed Bianchi