# Alcohol Cleaning and Sound Deadening



## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Two questions.

My Tyco/Mattel track has been up for about four years and hasn't given me any electrical type problems at all. Except when I give it a good cleaning. If I leave the track alone (and use it often), it runs just fine. Ocassionally I will use fine sandpaper, shine the rails and wipe with a dry cloth; still no problem.

However, on those occasions when I wipe the track down with alcohol, I can have problems. I shine the rails with fine sandpaper and then wipewith alcohol. After it completely dries, I have very intermittant electrical contact. The car will not make it around without being pushed for the first lap or two. In fact, I have to clean the pickup shoes after every lap or the car may not run at all. This has happened on a couple occasions. Eventually the track wears back in and all is fine. Apparently the alcohol must leave some kind of film on the rails that requires quite a bit of running to wear away. Am I doing something wrong?

My second question has to do with sound deadening. Currently my track sits on a carpet which covers plywood. The carpet has done a great job in reducing the noise. If I were to mount the track on a piece of luan or similar thin wood and then place that on top of the carpet (which is already on top of the plywood base), would the sound still be deadened? I'm thinking the answer is yes.

Thanks...Joe


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I don't think the alcohol itself is leaving a residue. What I think is happening is the alcohol (and water and other chemicals in the alcohol solution that keeps it less than 100% and keeps people from drinking it) is dissolving other grease and grime and gunk that is on the track and creating a solution that is then leaving a film on the rails and possibly leaching into the electrical contact points on the track.

A couple of things to keep in mind: 

1) If you are sanding your rails follow the sanding up with a thorough vacuuming job before doing any further track cleaning.

2) When you wipe your track down always do it in a single direction, in the direction the cars run, and without scrubbing back and forth. Start on one end and then run the cleaning cloth around the track. I recommend inexpensive microfiber wipers from a big box store. Use a cloth that is large enough to allow you to refold and flip the cloth around so you are always wiping the track with a clean segment of the cloth.

3) If you use alcohol to clean your track, which I do, put it in a spray bottle and spray a fine mist of it on the cleaning cloth, not on the track. You don't want to create a puddle of alcohol on the track and have it pulling gunk up out of every nook and cranny - unless you are doing a very thorough multi-pass cleaning and wiping off the wet track with a second cleaning cloth and assessing the cleanliness based on what you pick up with the cleaning cloth. When you spray the alcohol on the cleaning cloth it should be wetting the track and rails very briefly and evaporating nearly instantly. 

4) Use the highest alcohol content you can find. I can get 94% at any drug store and it is better than the 70% stuff. I will use the 70% if that's all I can find. 

5) Don't be afraid to follow the cleaning pass with a second pass with a clean cloth and check the second pass for signs that maybe you didn't do quite as good a job as you should have on the first pass.

So my thoughts are that the alcohol cleaning is dislodging/dissolving gunk that you are picking up (or floating up) with your cleaning process and cleaning cloth and redepositing back on the rails. I know alcohol works as it was a standard part of the cleaning regimen for contact cleaning on military & aerospace systems that I have worked on. We always wasted a lot of Kim Wipes in the process, never reusing the same one twice, but the alcohol definitely does the trick. The same process applies to prepping connections that are going to be soldered, always cleaning them first with alcohol.

About the sound... based on my experience in acoustics and vibration analysis I'd say that you will get considerably less sound attenuation (i.e., more sound) if you mount the track into wood and place it on top of the carpet. The amount of sound coupling is proportional to the density of the materials involved so you will still get coupling from the track into the luan. The luan will end up emitting sound itself even if it is "floating" on carpet. If the luan is nailed or screwed into the underlying table support system or contacting the side walls you'll also get coupling from the luan into the underlying structure at those points. Since luan is fairly flexible the sound levels may be quite pronounced. 

The strategies to passively reducing sound levels include placing poor acoustic transmitters between connection points and sound interfaces, which is what occurs when you place carpet between the track and plywood, and where there are cavities or membranes where standing waves may occur, introduce materials that have structures that will scatter and absorb the sound, which is what products like Homosote and sound deadening foam provide.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Hi AFXToo,

I never considered the possibility that the alcohol was bringing up gunk from the track and depositing it on the rails. I was thinking it was some impurity in the alcohol, but your analysis makes sense.

I was simply wetting a cloth and wiping down the track/rails. I figured that alcohol evaporates real quickly so as long as I didn't puddle it on the track, I'd be fine. I actually made two passes on my last cleaning and I'm still trying to get the track back to it's pre-cleaned performance.

In the sound deadening issue, I'd like to screw down the track, but I don't want to screw it down through the carpet and into the underlying plywood. I experimented with nailing down a couple pieces and the noise simply went down the nail right into the plywood - it was as if the carpet wasn't even there.

Thanks again for taking the time to spell everything out.

Joe


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## SDMedanic (Apr 21, 2011)

My track is periodically cleaned with WD40 applied to a cloth. One lap of the track does the job. Take 4-6 feet of track at a time and change sides of the cloth periodically. You won't believe how black the cloth gets off what appears to be a clean track. Occasionally I wipe the track down after the WD40 cleaning with Denatured Alcohol to remove any residual oil. 

No problems whatsoever with this cleaning method.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I also use WD40 for a cleaning, but usually just wipe with a microfiber cloth.

For sound deadening, this is the stuff I use for the table top...
Quiet brace, was about $7 a sheet at Home Depot three years ago.









As you can see, it just lays on top of some bracing, and my track lays on top of that.
The track isn't nailed down, it floats between the track boarders and clay infields.
While not as quiet as a Maxx or Wizzard track, I don't have any noisy track issues.
I would say its about as quiet as you can get for hollow plastic track.

_I thought about filling each piece with silicone, and installing continuous rail for each lane, 
but then why not just route a track or buy a pro track?_


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

Quietest set-up I ever had was when I laid that green astro-turf stuff you can get at the hardware store over the top of the entire track. Was a pain finding the slots however, and the cars didn't run at all, but it sure was quiet.


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## partspig (Mar 12, 2003)

LOL, I would never use WD-40 on my tracks, plastic or otherwise. It is a petroleum distillate, most commonly used for chasing water. It is not a lubricant or cleaner! In simple laymen's terms, basically, what you are doing to your plastic track, is dissolving a thin layer of the plastic track. That is what that "nice black color" on your rag is from! I used Rubbing Alcohol for years on my tracks. Yes the 80% mixture, cleans all the dirt and oil right off. Also it evaporates quickly, so that any damage that could be done to the track surface is greatly minimized. JMOFHO!! pig


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Right now my plastic track is quite quiet (I always wanted to put those two words together!). It sits on a plywood table covered with carpet and not nailed/screwed down. I was thinking it would be nice to fasten it down, but I won't nail/screw it to the base plywood as that simply transfers all the sound and cancels out the sound deadening effect of the carpet.

That's why I was asking if a layer of carpet (or foam) between the track board and the base plywood would give me the same level of sound deadening as I have now. I figure someone may have tried this along the way.

Thanks...Joe


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## pat4gis (Jan 12, 2008)

What grit sandpaper do you use? I have heard that you should never use abrasive on your rail. Any other rail polishing tricks?

_ >>If you are sanding your rails follow the sanding up with a thorough vacuuming job before doing any further track cleaning._


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

pat4gis said:


> What grit sandpaper do you use? I have heard that you should never use abrasive on your rail. Any other rail polishing tricks?


 It's real fine sandpaper. Actually I'm currently using the small pieces that came with Tyco sets. It's just rough enough to polish the surface of the rails. You could use this stuff forever and not wear down the rails.

Joe


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

I've had good luck with these 4-sided fingernail buffers...










Cheap and readily available at the drugstore.


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## SDMedanic (Apr 21, 2011)

partspig said:


> LOL, I would never use WD-40 on my tracks, plastic or otherwise. It is a petroleum distillate, most commonly used for chasing water. It is not a lubricant or cleaner! In simple laymen's terms, basically, what you are doing to your plastic track, is dissolving a thin layer of the plastic track. That is what that "nice black color" on your rag is from! I used Rubbing Alcohol for years on my tracks. Yes the 80% mixture, cleans all the dirt and oil right off. Also it evaporates quickly, so that any damage that could be done to the track surface is greatly minimized. JMOFHO!! pig


Intresting. How do you explain the black color on the rag when all of the tracks I know of that use this method are made from Gray Sintra? Maybe gray plastic turns black when exposed to WD-40?

The black tire marks come off when I clean the track with WD-40. Yes it evaporates but it does leave a oil film on the rails which prevents rust. Water-Alky never as it promotes rust and rust is bad. Straight Alky maybe.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

What about brake cleaner???? That should clean the track right up.


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## partspig (Mar 12, 2003)

My apologies, I was wrong in assuming that your tracks were black like mine. I own a black Max Trax. You probably are removing the silicone from the surface of the track, however did you know that WD-40 is 50% mineral spirits??? Just some food for thought. There is no way that the 80% alcohol/water mixture will make my track rust! It is about 90% plastic and the rails are stainless steel. The amount of time the mixture stays on the track is minimal. As the first wipe is followed immediately with another to make sure I get all the little bits of crap and oil off the surface, as well as any extra rubbing alcohol that get's splooged around. It'a all a matter of what you think will work best. I know several guys that use 409 to clean their Max Trax. They just can't seem to figure out why the track gets so slippery after a few laps.  JMOFHO pig


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

How about naval jelly?


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