Scuff Stations

Having a dedicated tire truing machine like the Tire Razor has changed our way of doing things when it comes to tuning. It used to be that a sanding station was a very important part of our workbench area as it helped us in getting our wheels and tires clean and as true as possible.

But having this advanced tool has made that simple sanding station obsolete. Well, almost. We use two types of tire compounds at our tracks: stock rubber and Paul Gage urethane tires. After a truing session we do not need to sand them heavily anymore, but sometimes they do need a quick cleaning. Even keeping your tires clean cannot stop them from forming a "glaze" over time. Hard racing has drifting and wheel spin that might not be that noticeable, but over time your tires can glaze over. In our case it is a mixture of running both types of compounds plus the sometimes dusty environment the old Skunkworks is famous for.

And nothing helps cure that better than a quick clean up, or what I like to call "Scuffing them up".

So we still had a need for a sanding station but it soon became a nuisance to leave the track and walk all the way over to the workbench to perform this task. It was also clear that having a sanding station with very coarse grit paper was not ideal either. All we really needed was some finer grit to clean them off and have the station closer to the track.

The solution was to make a scuff station at each driver location.

In this case I used a scrap section of MDF. If you do not have any and do not want to buy a whole sheet, try going to the home center you shop at and look through the scrap/waste area. All 3 of my local Lowe's & Home Depot have them. From OSB and plywood, to good old MDF. You are likely to find something that will work.

First, I set the depth on my circular saw just deep enough for the guides to rest in. 1/4" or as much as needed. Then measured where it needed to be and cut the groove. The MDF was then cut into stations 8 inches long by 4 inches wide. This is big enough for most any of the models we race on our track, even some of the Carrera 1/24.