for the Pie Festival and Car Show again. It was such a big hit with the folks
there last time we decided to do it again. Since we got there on Saturday we
loaded the track up and took it over to Pats shop where his ''New'' 4x4 flareside
truck was he has been working on. Really turned out nice, too.
We had been wanting to build a starting gate of some kind for the VC track in
order to give everybody a fair start. With a bit of Redneck engineering and
Farmer ingenuity we pulled it off. Follow along as the pictures tell the tale.
And here is the star of our show, (drumroll....) Pat Weller!
Right here he measured out the slots and cut them out with a drill and Jigsaw.
After that some filing of the edges was needed to deburr and even out the edges.
With some 3/8 x 16 tpi all thread we measured and drilled the holes for the pivot shaft.
Then the starting gate pins were welded to some hex nuts and threaded
on the shaft as it was spun through the holes from one side to another
along with jam nuts to secure them from moving once they were installed.
Checking the gate pins for free operation.
Starting gate shaft installed with all hardware including some stops
to limit going through the bottom with the gate pins.
For a handle we used one from an old ball valve laying around.
Just had to grind two flat sides on the threaded shaft and slide it on.
with a jam nut on each side it was done.
We flipped the track section over and folded the legs against the bottom
and it cleared the starting shaft perfectly. We will have to be cautious
to not drop the track on the side with the handle, but it shouldn't be a problem.
At the VC races on Sunday the gate worked great.
We even used a bungee cord to hold the starting gate closed so
the participants could stage their VC Racers.
All we need to do now is drill a hole
in the handle for a bungee cord.
Thanks to Pat and Paul (Toys) for the hard work to make this happen.
We'd like to see many more VC racers at Slick Stock this year.
See you in about 2-1/2 months. TR
