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After doing only a little work this past year on my new wood SSD hybrid track viewtopic.php?f=22&t=14410 , I am about to gear up to begin work on it again. I am thinking of going the maga-braid route on this track to assist run ghost cars to run well. I already have routed recesses for braid, I then followed that by routing another 1/16" groove on one side of the recess and installed tie wire which will reside under the braid which I hoped would provide magnetic traction much like the HO scale racers do. Unfortunately that experiment failed in that the magnet pull is barely noticeable when I put a car on the track. I am now thinking of magna-braid. My questions are:

1) What is the approximate percent of available magnetic pull with magnabraid as compared to let's say....... Scalextric Sport sectional track?

2) How does magna-braid hold up in unconditioned environments in terms of conductivity? My concern is that tinned steel might be more prone to corrosion or rusting. My slot car space is in my dry but unheated shop. We get about 60 inches of rain a year here.

Thanks For Your Replies,
Mike

A fellow racer here installed magna braid on his four lane 23 metre track build. The braid worked fine for a few years but when he relocated the track to an unlined shed in a coastal (across the road from the beach) location problems began. The conductivity started to become patchy, cars would stutter and stall. Before every use of the track much cleaning and prepping of the braid was required and even then things were never 100%.

My advice....forget magna braid and forget magnets for traction. If you are routing a track then the right surface and the right tires are all you need.

If you press on with magna braid then I think you will be fine with the humidity factor and the braid in your unheated workshop.

Area 51, one of the Shoreline Model Raceways tracks, has Magnabraid. Magnabraid is actually a mixture of steel and copper strands with a tin coating. Steel is not a great conductor and copper by itself is not magnetic. With respect to corrosion it should be the same as regular tinned copper braid unless the tin has been worn off. Tin will oxidize over time, there is less of a problem with that if the track is used on a regular basis. Area 51 does not get a lot of use, so before a race night the braid gets wiped down with contact cleaner followed by a pass with some Inox MX3.
Magnabraid will not give you as much downforce as regular solid steel rails. My best estimate is that it would be around 60-70% of the downforce that you would have on Scalextric Sport track. It may be similar to Carrera track, which has less magnetic stainless steel rails.
Slot Car Corner sells Inox and has just started to sell Magnabraid.

I have a routed mdf track with recessed magna-braid. The effect is clearly noticeable for magnet cars. You will find it adequate. I have had my track in my garage now for close to 10 years and I occasionally get out the INOX and clean the braid if it feels like the cars are running a little sluggish. Fixes it right up.

We used a paint product - Ralph Lauren River Rock - feels a little like sandpaper. We run any tire but Silicones and the result is great. No magnets needed.

Thanks Gents All. I will factor in your comments while making my decision. Like I said in the OP, my desire for this magnetic attraction is for ghost cars only. I am also thinking that I might just load up those ghost cars with a bunch of weight in the chassis to get the same result. Two cars in each class that I run would be sufficient to race against when I am playing alone.

Since they are just ghost cars could you rig up a guide pin in the back of the car? It would be like having a magnet.

I am not sure how SSD lane changers operate or the length of the mechanism, but with Carrera lc's [which open electronically, and close mechanically by the guide tripping it] some cars with a rear guide pin might have the front of the car change lanes and before the rear guide pin goes through, the flipper might close and the rear of the car might stay in the original lane :scared-eek: I don't know this for a fact, but something to consider.
Randy

sdd lane changer will stay open till the next car passes over the sensor. if see no lane change signal from the car it will flip back to straight.

You can also use magnetic paint in the corners to reasonable effect. We have a couple of tracks here with it.