I just picked up a pile of lock-n-joiner track at an estate sale. (No, they could not find the cars! Darn!) Can anyone advise the best way to clean the track surface, and then to refurbish the spotty-rusty/dirty rails?

Thanks!!
Phred

Go to your local hobby shop, in the trains section. Get a Bright Boy eraser.....It's a gritty rubber eraser used to clean the rails. After scraping the rails until shiny, clean the track with WD40. Finish with 409 (if desired). Your track is now clean and ready to use......... Have fun.

Awesome... I am off to the hobby shop at lunch then!!

Thanks for the quick, concise response!

Ph

Your track is now clean and ready to use...Well, almost ready to use. :o

I think you need to polish the little power tabs at the ends of the rails. I find the Brite Boy block too coarse for the tabs. An ink-eraser is good - the kind with fine grit in the rubber. I have a few of the old ones that look like a pencil with a little plastic brush on the other end - don't know if they still make them. If not, just use the block kind. Anyway, polish them up nice and bright, wipe them off with a dry cloth or Kleenex, and use a little screw driver to pry them outward a bit so they make good contact with the next track piece. NOW they're ready to use :) (if you have all the little locks and joiner pieces).:freak:

- D

For the end tabs, I used the Dremel and just touched them up. No matter what method you use, you need those end tabs clean to create good electrical contact.

Also, if you can't locate the Bright Boy eraser, you can use fine grit sandpaper; at least 600 grit. Then clean it up.

Joe

For the end tabs, I used the Dremel and just touched them up. What bit do you use in the Dremel, Joe - the wire brush?

I know you asked Joe but I had an old picture of the very thing described, just on different track. -Scott

http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/HO_Tech/Power_and_Wiring/cleancontact.jpg

Oh No Scott! You've got "Toe-lio".

Yup zinging the tabs with the dremel wire brush is my preferred method as well...However! Along the theme of "been there done that", I would advise ditching the stylish sandles for some sensible footwear.

All too often I've been the victim of those 'lil bits of wire that fling off the wheel. Both in the fingies and my tootsies. The 'lil buggers always seems to work their way into my hide. Must be my magnetic personality. ;)

Fairly easy to dig out of yer hand, but unless yer some sort of gymnast/contortionist; finding and extricating them from yer foot is no easy "feat"!:p

Nuthin' worse than a slotter with a sore paw. Grrrrrrrr!

I try to avoid "toelio", cuz it could manifest itself into "knee moan ya", or heaven forbid, the dreaded and fatal "small c-x" if left untreated!

On topic though! I rubber band stacks of like sized track together so you can buzz them with the wheel. It took some of the tedium out of the task and allowed for a steady rythym with the dremel...spin the stack around and do the uther side! I never timed it but it felt 800 times faster and there was way less hand fatigue. The occassinal snagging and jerking of the wire wheel was also diminished by a bunch.

LOL Bill. I looked at those sandals when I found that pic and spiraled into a day dream of summer. Cue the Wayne's World ripple effect...aahhh. Warm summer breeze blowing through the patio door on the old race room. Nice cold beer sweating on the table. Sun still going down @ 9:00 PM. :p

Oh please God bring us warm weather soon! :(

I would advise ditching the stylish sandles for some sensible footwear.
All too often I've been the victim of those 'lil bits of wire that fling off the wheel. Both in the fingies and my tootsies. The 'lil buggers always seems to work their way into my hide. I'm not always the most safety-conscious guy in the workshop, but I always make sure I have eye-protection on when I use the Dremel wire brush bits. I also use my speed control to keep the tool speed down when using them. At full 30,000 rpm they shed little wire bullets like crazy. -- D

What bit do you use in the Dremel, Joe - the wire brush?

Unlike the others, I used a grinding stone bit. I bought a bunch of them in Black and Decker assortment. Just lightly touch it to the metal and you're pretty much done. You don't want to grind, just touch up.

I also go at the MM tabs at a 90 degree angle to the track, as opposed to Scott's picture where's he's going at his Tyco track at 0 degrees.

The only wire brush I got came with the Dremel and I don't find it very useful for slots - it's far too soft.

Joe