My first Track

[Blackranger3d]

Here are the track plans
http://www.ultimatecheer.ca/pub/track12.pdf
Materials

wood for bridge.
= $0 recently finished home reno so I have tonnes of wood

32 foam core puzzle mats (I got mine from Home Depot about 1/2 the price of the Wal-Mart ones - here in Canada Anyway)
=$12 for 4

100' of foam pipe insulators
= $1.50 for 6 feet

2 boxes of 1/4" nuts and bolts
= $10

Puzzle mats = foundation
Pipe insulation and bolts = the railings. I like the pipe because it is soft enough to protect the cars, and bend to create the corners I need. To attach it to the foam core I drilled a 1/4" hole through the insulation and the foam core. In then put a bolt up from the bottom securing the insulation to the foam core. I figured this would cause less damage to the foam core then glue, thus allowing me to use it for other stuff.

Bridge =

My first bridge was too high. I built it high so that My xmod could not get up and over it. It was 47 inches long and 14 inches high (the hypotenuse was 49.04). This had an angle of about 17 degrees.

To solve this I lowered the ramp from 14” to 9”. This lowers the angle of attack from 17 to 11 degrees. At 11 degrees my xmod can mount the bridge.

So if you are building an xmod bridge I would try to keep the angle low around 10. My wife is a "math-a-magician" so she helped me to figure out the angles etc. For the non-math types here is a site that will help you to calculate angles. http://www.csgnetwork.com/righttricalc.html


And here are the current pictures. I have not finished all the railings yet.






I think my next mods will be to

- add track level lights for night / dark racing. Any other ideas.
- add a jump shortcut and a obstecle course
- add a ...... (any more ideas)

Thanks for looking