Home Racing World

Santa Fe Speedway needs to go under construction soon. My portable oval that gets setup in my garage.
Spent a lot of valuable time last night repairing my copper tape. We don't get to run as often as we like and I hate spending the time doing repairs when we should be racing.
So the question is do I go copper tape again or braid? The track was built in 2006 and has held up pretty well. We run it hard, mostly 1/24 hard body and the trailer races have done its damage.
Its not something that needs to get done right away because racing season is here and I want it available through the summer.
Being that it is portable makes it a little more challenging with the tongue and grove construction.
Currently I have pig tails hanging down that connect the two sections together. Making a solid connection between the pigtails and braid would be essential.
Thought?? Copper or Braid?

This is very rough drawing of what we talked about.



Then run the wires to terminal block and install your pigtails again.

Anyway, if you can go braid you know my answer :)

I would go with braid, once you get started you will be done

Hey Norb. Meadowdale moved to it's new location and they are going to install magna-braid, so I'll let you know how the braid channel routing goes.

FB

Routing for the braid is the easy part. I have everything to do that. Glueing it down is
the tedious part. The double sticky tape idea does not work, any braid juice or lighter
fluid dissolves the adhesive. Contact cement still seems to be the best method.

"The double sticky tape idea does not work, any braid juice or lighter fluid dissolves the adhesive"

Not here sir? But then again I am not drowning the braid in the stuff.

Well, after testing several methods of mounting the braid when I was building the dragstrip, I found
nothing which held the braid as well as contact cement. This included several brands of industrial
double sided tape, and I was able to easily pull up the braid. I was not willing to take the chance
that the braid would hold, only to find out that I would have to re-braid it all over again. Norb's
oval takes some very heavy abuse, and I heartily suggest using contact. I don't think he will really
save any time or money taking a shortcut.

Norb, I am not sure if we have raced together or not, but many of the bombers and I have. If you need help and technical advice, I have rebuilt several tracks with copper tape, and all manner of braid....and I am local to YOU - St Charles,IL. Ramcatlarry/Larry Kelley/ramcatlarry@aol.com

Come to the first race (and BBQ) on the restored Meadowdale Raceway (was father bobs) in CARY tomorrow....10am -3pm.

I have raced with you Larry. Nice to hear from you again.
I think i have figured it out but I always looking for good advice.
Thanks for the offer and I will keep you in mind.
It was great what the Great Lakes Club did for the Meadowdale Museum. I am happy to see the track live again.
I would like to run that track again some time.
Thanks

In my opinion braid is the way to go. I can see your point about the juices getting to the tape and causing it to let go and the glue down method being a bit of a pain, but it is a one and done pain. It sounds like now you are working on the track every time you go to run on it. I just can believe that would be the case with the braid.

With my track I built it in sections so I could take it apart and move it without damage if the day were ever to come. I braided each section separately before bolting the track together for final assembly. I left the braid long one each end of the track section to serve as the pigtail. I have been crimping terminal ends onto the braid and terminating on terminal strips at each joint. However what we found when we powered up the track for the first laps is that the braid pressed together by the joint is all that is needed. That may change as time goes on, but it is working for now and I still have all the pigtails for when they are needed.

I could provide details of the way the joint is made if you would like.