Discussion
My latest track I used 3/4 in. plywood and had them rip it down in 6 inch widths. But I'm using aluminum to keep the track straight, and it also insures that the boards will not bend or twist. I think it is important to remember that your board pieces that butt up together might need some board under each section. It helps to keep the connections smooth...say if you have an 8 ft board, there is no way of knowing if the floor is going to be level. And if the floor isn't level, then it will mess up your boards where they connect...thus creating a bump at every board. Hope this helps.
Preacher
You should be fine with 1x6 s, however I'd spend the couple extra bucks and buy from a decent lumber dealer. I've had bad luck with warped boards brought home from Home Depot and other such places.
Even if they're straight whn you buy em, they often warp if they sit for a couple days. I used 1x4s and 1x6 to frame my slot table and I had a huge problem with warpage.
While my original blog post serves as a good guide for building your own home track, now several years later I really need to revise that article and talk about the lessons learned, etc.
Case in point is exactly what Shadow pointed out about warped boards. My track boards stay out in a sunroom attached to my house which has the temperature vary greatly and its taken a tool on my boards. I'm not exactly what the solution is, whether that's just "better" lumber or weather treating them or what. But even after a little warping the track is still very raceable, you just have to account for it sometimes when you set things up.
The problem with wood has made me really envy the aluminum tracks I see some clubs using, like the guys over in Indonesia. It just seems like that would have less issue with such things but I don't know where to find 1x6 aluminum "boards" if such a thing exists.
While my original blog post serves as a good guide for building your own home track, now several years later I really need to revise that article and talk about the lessons learned, etc.Case in point is exactly what Shadow pointed out about warped boards. My track boards stay out in a sunroom attached to my house which has the temperature vary greatly and its taken a tool on my boards. I'm not exactly what the solution is, whether that's just "better" lumber or weather treating them or what. But even after a little warping the track is still very raceable, you just have to account for it sometimes when you set things up.
The problem with wood has made me really envy the aluminum tracks I see some clubs using, like the guys over in Indonesia. It just seems like that would have less issue with such things but I don't know where to find 1x6 aluminum "boards" if such a thing exists.
Check out custom window business in your phone book, also a metal supply house will have lots to choose from. The window shop might have the stock material that they will sell and cut to size. I've thought about this ...but what I'm using is working fine for now.
Preacher
I used 1x6s.
I pretty much copied the layout from the Redlinederby blog. Check it out here:
http://www.redlinederby.com/blog/build-your-own-redline-derby-race-track/