# Has Anyone Tried Bending Track?



## aviator (Dec 27, 2007)

The old mm track had a section called a bridge track and a cousin used it in many ways on his course. Has anyone tried to bend track by heating or boiling or any other way I haven't thought of. I am using Tomy afx and trying to keep from adding a bunch of adapter pieces. Thanks Shawn


----------



## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

I haven't tried heating or boiling - yet - but I think some others here have or are going to. I did try notching the sides of a 15" straight, every 1/4", to see how much bend I could get, but as is probably the case with most methods, the steel rail is going to start to pop-out before it bends in a favorable way.


----------



## HadaSlot (Oct 22, 2007)

That is what happened when I tried it. I did see 12 sections of old afx flex track for sale the other day on the bay for less than 50 bucks with shipping. Mount it and glue it solid and fill in gaps and have a road course. I think it was 12X36" but a ton of it for cheap. Just another idea that may have or not been tried.


----------



## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

I tried heating up a track section in the oven and it turned into a gooey mess.  

In the past I could not find the Tyco 9" radius 1/8 piece I needed so I cut a 1/4 turn piece, nailed it down and ran jumpers. It worked great until I found the right piece. I used a Dremel on the rails and a razor saw on the plastic.


----------



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Hair dryer. Works good, you can do little bits at a time, use a tack hammer to tap the rails back down as you go. The corkscrew at the Laguna Seca track is all 6" corners that I'm having to tweek as I go. So far so good but I have to keep testing it with a car to make sure the slot stays the same width/depth and can stay in rail contact.


----------



## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Even if you could bend the plastic, how could you bend the rail for something like a bridge? Bending rail sideways (such as a curve) is not a problem. However, bending rail vertically (up or down) has got to be next to impossible.

Let's say you took the rail out of a 9" straight and then bent it to look like either an old MM bump or bridge track and did a perfect job. Now you want to reinsert the rail. How would you make it bend to follow the contours of the track?

Joe


----------



## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

HadaSlot said:


> I did see 12 sections of old afx flex track for sale the other day on the bay for less than 50 bucks with shipping......Just another idea that may have or not been tried.


The flex track can be had for fairly cheap, but I assume that there must be a negative side to using it, since I don't see any tracks with it. 

I really do want some undulations in the next track I build, but I am starting to think I need to be realistic, and that if I want to work with the plastic track, I need to live with the limitations of it. Having said that, if someone was to bend the track, then grind down the elevated rail, maybe that would be worth it. Or, remove the steel rail, and work it to the shape you want outside of the plastic track, then re-insert it.


----------



## neophytte (Sep 14, 2006)

Yes. My friend Cam did some track bends for a mega hill, he discussed his trials and errors in our local forum here:

http://neophytte.mine.nu/forum/forum.pl?fid=05&topic_id=1155977499

and you can see his complete track build here:

http://neophytte.mine.nu/forum/forum.pl?fid=05&topic_id=1149994686

Enjoy!

Richard


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

In the 12'x4' thread, *Micyou03* said, about correcting the warping in Tomy 15" straights:


> I used tap hot just a bit hotter than I could stand my hand in for more than a few seconds, in a dish pan. I immersed the whole piece for a few seconds and then bent it past being straight and held it until it cooled. If it looked straight, I was done, if not I just kept adjusting it by dipping and trying again.


Another approach is given in _*Race Aurora AFX*_, a 1982 British softbound book by Geoff Preston. He describes creating a hump back bridge track:

_"...this is a fairly simple job, but does require a bit of patience. Basically, the track is heated and bent, but this must be done carefully. You will need a bowl of cold water, some form of blow torch (I use a Ronson butane lamp), a pair of gloves to hold the track whilst it is being heated, and a tin can of about 75mm diameter. Do not use a jar as it may break.

"Take a piece of 15" track; make three pencil marks, one in the centre and two more, 75mm from each end. I find it best to bend the centre first; hold the blow lamp near the track, but do not let the flame touch it, as heat from the flame is only needed to warm the centre mark and 60mm each side of it. When you see the surface of the track just beginning to melt, it is time to bend it by using the tin or the edge of a table, but do not try to do it in one go. Bend it a couple of degrees first, then heat it again and remember to bend the rails as well as the actual track. As you form the track the rails will begin to rise out at the end, but try to avoid this by concentrating on the bending of the rails rather than the track.

"Try to get a smooth curve without steps in it and don't bend it any further than about 10 degrees which doesn't sound much, but is really quite steep. When it is done, immerse in a bowl of water. 

"The base inclines, i.e. the change from flat to inclined surface, is done in the same way. This, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear, is much easier, but it may force the rails out at the summit. When you're happy with the shape, quench it and do the other end, trying to get the same shape. When it has been quenched for the last time, dry it thoroughly with kitchen towel to prevent the rails from rusting.

"The rails and indeed some of the surface of the track will be out of shape, which is corrected with a file. However do not file the rails down too far or the car will not be able to pick up the current."_

I've never tried it, but that's what the book says. I think I'd make a few changes to the procedure: using a hair dryer instead of a torch flame, tightly clamping 1x2 wood scraps over and under the ends of the track to keep the rail from shifting, and placing long wads of cold-water-soaked tissue paper across the track just inside the 1x2 scraps to keep the clamped rail ends cool enough not to soften the plastic and sink into it.

Also, if you're planning to run magnet cars, you may find they don't have the ground clearance to make it over a MM-sized hump or bridge. Run a test before committing to a humped track plan.

Having seen Luf's Nurburgring course, I plan to try making a hump or two from 15" straights, but lower and more gradual than the classic MM humps. My guess is that old AFX weak-magnet cars will make it over (and Tjets of course), but the modern Tomy cars still will not. But I'd rather have the bumps than run the fast magnet cars. In my opinion, the modern cars sacrifice too much to the cause of blinding speed. (I considered saying this more entertainingly, but didn't want to risk another polite reprimand from AFXtoo).

When I get to work with the hair dryer, I'll post a report on how well it worked.
-- D


----------



## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

neophytte said:


> Yes. My friend Cam did some track bends for a mega hill, he discussed his trials and errors in our local forum here:
> 
> http://neophytte.mine.nu/forum/forum.pl?fid=05&topic_id=1155977499
> 
> ...


Great links! Thanks!


----------



## tasman (Feb 17, 2007)

If you bend a piece of straight track vertically (so it looks like it has a hump) won't that shorten the length of the piece? I think all makes of track adhere to the multiple of 3" rule. If you take a 15" straight and bend it and it turns out to be 13 1/2" long I would think that would cause you problems trying to line up track pieces to complete a layout.


----------



## racin75 (Jan 28, 2007)

*bending track*

that is not a problem it just takes some time with a dremal and a roll pin ,look at my gallery on frankinstein speedway and look at all the bending i done on my new track in the new pic i posted a few days ago every turn on the whole track is bent with 2 12'' /15''/ 18'' banks with 47 degree banking. thanks gary


----------



## tasman (Feb 17, 2007)

racin75 said:


> that is not a problem it just takes some time with a dremal and a roll pin ,look at my gallery on frankinstein speedway and look at all the bending i done on my new track in the new pic i posted a few days ago every turn on the whole track is bent with 2 12'' /15''/ 18'' banks with 47 degree banking. thanks gary



Impressive track and banks, but I think the original post is asking about reproducing a vertically bent track (like a camel's hump), not a horizontal bent track such as you have done for banking.

I believe a vertical bent track has two issues - 1 raised by earlier in the thread - how do you vertically bend rail? And, when you vertically bend track you change the "flat line" length of the track.


----------



## jph49 (Nov 20, 2003)

A fellow I know built a lovely two lane track and used the hump tracks to accomodate the overpass. His comment was that anything with more magnetic attraction than a Magna-traction (he may have said a non-mag AFX) could not negotiate the hump. This was fine with him, because he limited racing on it to Tjets and AFX cars.

Patrick


----------



## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

tasman said:


> If you bend a piece of straight track vertically (so it looks like it has a hump) won't that shorten the length of the piece? I think all makes of track adhere to the multiple of 3" rule. If you take a 15" straight and bend it and it turns out to be 13 1/2" long I would think that would cause you problems trying to line up track pieces to complete a layout.


It could cause problems, but on the other hand, it could resolve problems. The track pieces are not perfect dimensionally, so on a decent sized layout, chances are your last piece will not be a perfect fit anyway. Having a straight that has been shortened due to elevation may be just what the doctor ordered!


----------



## tasman (Feb 17, 2007)

Scafremon said:


> It could cause problems, but on the other hand, it could resolve problems. The track pieces are not perfect dimensionally, so on a decent sized layout, chances are your last piece will not be a perfect fit anyway. Having a straight that has been shortened due to elevation may be just what the doctor ordered!


You may be right. I'm just not that good or lucky, if I bent a piece I'd never get it to line up!


----------



## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Back in the Aurora days, I had a track set up using the bridge pieces. At the time, all I had was T-Jets and a few AFX.

Then one day I got an Aurora G-Plus with a track lot I bought. I put it on the track, got to the bridge and WHAM! - it stuck like glue. Even had to hold the track down to get it off.

A few years ago, I was setting up the MM track and used the bridge again. I then tried some Tyco cars. WHAM! Only the Hoppers made it over.

You can make bridges from Tyco track with no bending. All you need is two loop track and two hill track. Put it together as loop-hill-hill-loop and you've got a bridge. The Hopper and Bandit sets used loops and hills for elevation changes.

Joe


----------



## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Thanks for posting that "CAM" link....I love his layout. He is a Wild and Crazy Dude!!!!

Bob...zilla


----------



## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Interesting.


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

What if the humps were made from non-magnetic MM track?


----------



## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

AfxToo said:


> What if the humps were made from non-magnetic MM track?


LIke copper tape?

Has anyone tried bending turns into banks? Any suggestions?

Rich


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Grampa was high centered*

2 cents and change.

Problem with the lump tracks is rise over run vs chassis ride height. With the original MM humpys and hills were made to work with the chassis. It required both sufficient ground clearance AND pick up travel.

As soon as chassis got slung down to minimum airgaps the lumps became a problem. This was on pre-magnetic downforce cars. Neither the Tyco pans or the standard AFX would navigate the lumpage with any consistency. 

While a skilled driver might get lucky and skitter through, the actual results were that the chicken hearted, were more often than not, hung sideways on the hump; and the gorilla fingered were using them as take off ramps to put the new generation cars into orbit.

At the time magnetic handling assistments were not part of the equation. Ferrous or not it wasnt the rails causing the mayhem it was the simple fact that the need for speed new generation cars got hung on their guts because they were low or the specialty track ascent angle was too high.


----------



## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Hey Bill,
Have you ever tried modifying track?


----------



## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

*Aurora Bank Adapters*



NTxSlotCars said:


> LIke copper tape?
> 
> Has anyone tried bending turns into banks? Any suggestions?
> 
> Rich


Aurora used to make metal bank adapters for 9" 1/4 turns. You slid the track into the metal bracket and there were plastic wedges to force the curve up on the outside edge. It made a nice 15-20 degree bank on the track. Only problem was they only made it for the 9" curve and you could not extend the bank to a straight section.

-Paul


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Hey Bill,
> Have you ever tried modifying track?


Not in this century Rich. I pretty well gave up. Most of my stuff came out looking like black lasagna noodles anyway! 

Member "Slott-V" has some bitchin homespun banks. Scott uses the piecut technique to relieve the inherant stresses of flat track. If memory serves he gives a good play by play as well.


----------



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

When I did Laguna Seca the corckscrew was shaped with a hair dryer and had a 3" elevation drop over 18". With Tomy Turbo's and Super G+'s I had no chassis drag with .440 rear tires. Anything less than that did bottom out and that's where all the problems with others trying to drive this circuit came into play. My cars were fast because they made use of the limitations of that track. 










With Sequoia the "flat" corners were again heated and formed into 8 degree banks. There are some joint problems but the track is very drivable and has only a slight "bump" in the middle of the corners. When the turns were soft I did have to hammer the rails into a shallow bank. Using 1/8ths corners helped in my situation.


----------



## neophytte (Sep 14, 2006)

bobhch said:


> Thanks for posting that "CAM" link....I love his layout. He is a Wild and Crazy Dude!!!!
> 
> Bob...zilla


He sure is!


----------



## Jim Norton (Jun 29, 2007)

*Manufactured hill track*

A hill track would be a good accessory piece. Something like Aurora's original 9" piece but 15" long.

This would offer the opportunity for "table tops" and better transistions on pass over tacks.

Jim Norton
Huntsville, AL


----------



## neophytte (Sep 14, 2006)

Hmm, we don't seem to have any problems with any types of cars at Cam's - in fact probably the "worst" of the bunch atr T-Jets; mainly because the 'hill' has a 6" curve at the bottom and they tend to be moving with enough momentum to come out:

http://neophytte.mine.nu/photo/2008-04-05-HO_slotcar_racing/

The cat on the track is another story 

Cheers

Richard


----------

