I'm ready to try to rout my own HO track. I go back and forth in my mind on using tie wire or copper tape. Only routing one slot has it's appeal, but the tie wire sounds like an easier way to get the power to my cars. My question is, how should I go about building a jig for cutting the slots for the wire? What do I use for pins to go in the track slot? How far away do I place them from each other to get accurate cuts on curves and in the straights?

Any and all advice on creating jigs would be helpful.

Thanks,

John

Another thing... if I use rebar wire, can I still run two of my 1/32 cars on my 4 lane HO track?

When I routed the power slots, I made a jig of plexiglass. It mounted to the base of the router and has a hole in the center for the bit. I measured out from it the distance I wanted for the power slots and drilled and glued in 2 nail/brads. I think they were 18 gauge. The three holes (tool and 2 nails) makes kind of like a triangle. The nails are only about an inch apart. These nails are set to a height that will not bottom out in the guide slot. This gives you the offset for the power slot. Run the router one way around and the flip it to the other side and go the other way, thus, two power slots. Using two points in the guide slot will keep you "square", so the spacing to the power slots is consistant.
Once again, you should probably test these things on a small layout. I tried the tie wire thing and couldn't keep the wire in the slot. My slot was larger then 1/16", I think because the single flute bit I was using was not accurate. I'm hoping to use electrican fish tape when I get back in the basement for fall/winter.

Rick

Is the fish tape used flat or stood on edge? Obviously the edge requires a deeper slot, but would probably be "more firm" in placement.

For the pins in the base, use a dremmel cut off wheel and cut them from an AFX front axel or Tyco axel. They are hard, smooth, and will not bend. You don't want the router to hang on anything when it is moving. Always "push" the router.
The fishtape stands on end. You cannot lay it flat as it will not bend for your turns. The fishtape works great!!! Hope this helps some,
Randy

If you use copper tape for an HO track you will need to use 1/32 style braided pickup brushes soldered to the bottom of your stock pickup shoe or a slide guide (HO guide similar to 1/32 style). I have used small size desoldering braid. Stock HO pickup shoes will not pick up electricity very well on copper tape.
I built a routed oval with the idea of running different scales on the track. It had 6 lanes HO spacing which could be used alternately for 3 lanes of 1/32 or 1/24. I taped one lane and found the tape did not work well with stock HO cars.

John --

I have some information about routed HO tracks in my blog, which you can find here (http://wmbrant.spaces.live.com/).

Now, outside of an HO-scale 'slider' track I created about 3 years ago, it's all theoretical. It's information I have gathered from all over the web.

However, I hope to start my routed track soon and put that information to practical use.

-- Bill

The problem I'm having with the fish tape is that it is too stiff. When installing in the curves (about a 9 inch radius) it is causing the top 1/8" of the MDF between the guide and power slot to split from the board. I'm trying to find a flat wire manufacturer that has a same size but different temper, so it will be easier to fit without damaging the MDF or try to pre-bend the flat wire to better fit the curve. So far, my search for a less temper flat wire from a wire manufacturer has fallen on deaf hears.

Rick

Thanks for all of the comments. I've been reading for a while, and I love your site Bill, but I just hadn't seen much on jigs other than the ones that were made to roll along the edge of the track and cut the grove a certain distance from that edge. I envision making a track like the ones on Luf's website that take some realistic paths through the curves, etc. and knew that the edge roller would not work.

Thanks for the tip of using the axels for the pins to guide in the slot!

John --

A couple of notes:

1. The fish tape will result in a *lot* of magnetic downforce. It's fine if you're racing non-magnetic cars, but may result in overheating of magnet cars. You can put larger tires on magnet cars, but it's something you will need to remember.

2. The best recommendation on routing I have heard about is to use a template, like fulltiltspeedways.com and others have done. Then you need a jig to route the other slots. This jig will be similar to one that I show in my blog and like RichD described -- make sure you are looking at the 'other 7 slots' version of the jig, which is the last of three pictures of the jig -- only with 1/16" pins and HO spacing. You cannot see the whole bottom of the jig in the normal view of my blog. Right click on that picture, and choose 'View Image', and then you will. Note that the first pin is right across from the router bit. The second pin follows slightly behind -- for HO, maybe 1/2" to 1" behind the first.

The problem with creating 'realistic paths' in HO -- as much as I like 'em in other scales -- is that it forces you into routing every lane separately -- at least in the corners where you have the realistic paths. Given the tight tolerances necessary with HO, you will want to practice doing the 'trammel and straight edge' style of routing before starting on your 'real' track.

To get a realistic path with either edge routing or using a template, you need to be fiddling with the corner width or template width with every lane. Brad Bowman does that, but I suspect that it might very tricky. Note on Brad's site, the 'oldest' track listed which is not yet finished (Burneson Raceway) is one that uses these 'realistic paths'. Brad has done squeeze sections on several of his tracks, but nothing as wild as Luf has done.

Luf's normal routing approach is the trammel and straight edge and/or the use of a flexible straight edge -- his flexible strip -- which he has been using more and more. When he uses the straight edge or flexible strip, he has a circular piece of plastic mounted to the bottom of his router. For subsequent lanes, if they are parallel, he uses something like the 'other seven lanes' jig, the only difference being that instead of pins, Luf uses a piece of Sintra the he has sanded thinner so that it moves smoothly through the slot. If the lanes are not parallel, he uses his flexible strip and the round base on his router.

One gotcha is that his flexible strip may not be flexible enough for the tighter HO turns, unless you always have the strip on the outside of the turns. I broke one of Luf's strips on too tight of a turn on a 1/43 scale track, so this is something you will need to be careful of.

In any case, I would recommend building a test track first. Make sure your cars work on it before you build the whole track.

-- Bill

Similar to RickP, I made a plexiglass jig, which you can view on my website here:

http://routedtrack.hobby-site.com/html/construction.html

See a close up under test track 3 for the idea. My jig used nails, but as previously mentioned, the HO axles work.

HTH

Richard

The fishtape is available in stainless steel, which has less downforce, which is great for magnet cars. The drawback is the stainless causes a little arcing with the shoes. You have to keep the shoes clean, which most racers do anyways. You notice it more with T-jets. AFX, Tyco, and Lifelike run great. The good part is the stainless doesn't rust.
As for the tight turns, get a friend to help hold the rail and pre-bend it before putting it in place. Pull it back and forth against a round pipe, to put a bend in it, or just use something solid (a piece of 3 or 4" PVC pipe) to bend it around. It worked for me. Just putting in my 2 cents. Randy

You could try .062" (1/16") mig welding wire instead

copper tape just plain sucks