# Plastic Slot Channel - Did I Imagine This?



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

In a thread in the Track Building forum, I asked for info on a product I saw for routed track, but can't find. Others were interested too, but nobody replied, and the latest thread there, on track routing options, hasn't mentioned it either. 

The product is flexible plastic channel stock, in rolls, so that you can rout a fairly wide groove in the track, and press the channel into it, to get a slick uniform finished slot. Available in black and in colors for lane coding.

Seems they also made it in thinner sizes also, to allow rail grooves to be routed with a larger bit than usual, the channel pressed into the slot, and then rail can be pressed into the channel without need for a lock wire. 

Did I imagine this? Or maybe see it for a larger scale and think it was for HO?

Can anybody provide a manufacturer's name, or any info?

Thanks.

-- D


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## SCJ (Jul 15, 1999)

I have seen this in old slot mags from the 60's....1/32 and 1/24 scale, nothing HO to my knowledge.



--------------------------
www.SlotCarJohnnies.com


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

I sorta remember something about it, but I think it had a 1/8"-wide slot. :freak:


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

McMaster-Carr has plastic u-shaped channel of various sizes and wall thickness. Probably not what you were thinking of, but might offer some interesting options.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

The key to making something like this is in the material. It can't compress, but it has to stretch. This will allow the channel to bend for the curves with out kinking. It also has to stay square when bending so that the groove maintains it's dimensions. It also has to bend without naturally wanting to twist. I wouldn't doubt there's a manufacturer extruding this very product right now, but figuring out who and what it's intended for so we could find it is going to be a challenge.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Dude, you must have been dreaming. Was this during August in direct sunlight?

But I like the way you're thinking.


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## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

I believe the guy was using styrene strips, placed in the first slot, to use as a guide to route all the other slots. You held the router against the strip. The router had a base with a measured spacers which allowed you to route the rail slots and guide slots...RM

P.S. This may be it??? Post# 7

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=282509


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Hilltop Raceway said:


> I believe the guy was using styrene strips, placed in the first slot, ...
> 
> P.S. This may be it??? Post# 7
> http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=282509


That's pretty interesting and useful in and of itself, Hilltop, but it's not what I was "remembering." I recall it as a product on a commercial page of track-routing supplies.

It's possible that I did actually dream it one night, and the memory of the dream came back days or weeks later when I was thinking about alternatives to sectional track. 

-- D


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## TurnNBurn (Mar 13, 2007)

Long time since I actually logged on to a slot board and saw this and thought...

Instead of U-shaped channel, couldn't you just use strips for the inside and outside walls of the slot? ie, not bottom of the U, just I I on the sides? That would pass around corners fairly easily I would think... if you can figure out a way to attach the strip to the sides of the base material you routed. Don't know if this would work, just thinking that off the top of my head...


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

And if the strips were the right thickness, maybe you could just attach rails to the outside edges... Hmmm....

The base of the u is supposed to help with maintaining the guide slot width, but it's really an unproved assumption, as scman points out above. Hmmm...


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

HHHmmmmmmm..... the plot thickens.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

I cannot fathom a material that would be extruded in a u shape and be able to bend around even slight sweeps without kinking. I place innerduct that is 1.25" and larger and it will not go around a bend tighter than 6' long at 90 degrees. it is quite flexible while being strong and is an endless tube. having cut it, for various reasons, when reduced to a u shape it contorts and twists and will not remain flat. yet, there are probably materials that I am not aware of that will perform as expected. watching and waiting for that news.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

alpink said:


> ... there are probably materials that I am not aware of that will perform as expected. watching and waiting for that news.


You might be waiting a while, Al. The longer this thread goes on without anyone confirming it, the more I think my memory of seeing the web page with these products must have been just a vivid dream that came back to me only when I was thinking about alternative ways to create non-sectional track. Too bad.

-- D


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I think you may have saw something D... but it was in a vintage location. The reason you aren't seeing it in a more recent time frame is because it didn't work as the vendor suggested it would. Bending the sides to conform to the groove can be done. Getting the bottom of the U to bend with it isn't really feasible without twisting.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Well, since the door is open....

...so, I was dreaming of a routed 'flex-track' that could be turned into banks or sharp turns.
Just lay it out, and install the rails.

Another one.

...so, I was dreaming of a car with the motors in the wheels, where the armature was stationary,
and the magnets, inside the tires, spun the tires.

Oh yeah,

...so, I was dreaming of a SCR controlled power controller, giving the cars power directly.
( I think this one came from that shared rail thread. )

Okay, so I dream a lot.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

> _Rich sez:_
> ...so, I was dreaming of a car with the motors in the wheels, where the armature was stationary, and the magnets, inside the tires, spun the tires.


Well, Rich. I don't have a rotary-electric slotcar for you. But here's the 1894 Balzer, a 1:1 American-made automobile in which the crankshaft was fixed and the three cylinders rotated around it, driving the car. 

Rotary engines were common in airplanes (years later) but in a car?! Can anybody think of another? I can't.

-- D


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2010)

The only other rotary engine vehicle that I can remember was the Datsun and Mazda line. Thinking out of the box where the magnets spin is a great idea.


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## ggnagy (Aug 16, 2010)

Datsun did not build a Wankel Rotary, Mazda was the only Japanesee auto manufacturer to sell cars with such an engine. Other car companies who sold Wankel engined cars in any appreciable numbers were NSU and Citroen. There is still a spinning crankshaft analogue, called the eccentric shaft. For traditional radial engines, the crankshaft is stationary, and then engine pistons spin around it. 

Aside from packaging and problems with connections to the motor, the big problem with a radial engine is that its a big ole flywheel that could generate a strong gyroscopic effect. Thats great for keeping planes stable, but not so great for cars wishing to make quick changes in direction. 
There IS a class of electric motors that somewhat simulate the radial engine, and 
There is a class of electric motors that are like the in-wheel ones Rich describes. Tehre are a class of RC plane motors called "outrunners" where the field windings remain stationary, and the magnets and outer casing spin. Your CD Rom drive most likely uses the same design, as outrunners are based on them.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

> _Jeepman sez:
> _The only other rotary engine vehicle that I can remember ...


Oh, yeah, Jeepman; I forgot about the Wankel-powered vehicles. 

They were called rotary engines too, but I meant the actual aircraft-style rotary where the shaft was fixed to the body and the engine case and cylinders spin around it to provide the power.

-- D


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

ggnagy said:


> ... the big problem with a radial engine is that its a big ole flywheel that could generate a strong gyroscopic effect. Thats great for keeping planes stable, but not so great for cars wishing to make quick changes in direction.


As I recall, it can even have peculiar effects on aircraft handling. I think some of the WWI rotary-engined fighters had a much tighter turn to the right than to the left (or was it the other way around?) because one turn was working with the gyro-effect of engine's rotation, while the other was working against it.

Or did I dream that, too?

-- D


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