test vehicle

Just for fun, because I finally am getting real progress on smoothing the damaged joints on this old track I'm restoring, I rigged up a Slot.it chassis with 2 AA batteries (total of 3 volts), and it ran slow enough for me to see it as it went over the joints in the track. To my astonishment, it smoothly went all the way in all four lanes, even in the unfinished areas. After enjoying that so much, I was putting it away and discovered that this was a chassis fresh from the package that I didn't use some time ago, and the guide was so low it was dragging all the way around, braids attached. That's dragging over unsanded patches, glue residue from the old copper tape that was stripped, new paint and old, and it sailed around smooooth.
What started this testing today was that I discovered the slots had narrowed from the moisture the track was exposed to while it was stored. A proper sized router bit doesn't fit in it. I worried that it might not allow the guides to pass through, especially in tight turns. Nope, its fine. In fact, I wonder if the slots were always tighter, because we used to talk about how we did better on this track than some others in our group. Its a little smaller than 3/32s. But the guide has plenty of room, and as I say, I was very relieved to see that chassis slip around in every lane. What a great Saturday afternoon.
What started this testing today was that I discovered the slots had narrowed from the moisture the track was exposed to while it was stored. A proper sized router bit doesn't fit in it. I worried that it might not allow the guides to pass through, especially in tight turns. Nope, its fine. In fact, I wonder if the slots were always tighter, because we used to talk about how we did better on this track than some others in our group. Its a little smaller than 3/32s. But the guide has plenty of room, and as I say, I was very relieved to see that chassis slip around in every lane. What a great Saturday afternoon.