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As I mentioned in the Arduino timer project page, I've built a track so that my son Liam can test his Pinewood derby cars. Despite how obnoxious that sounds, I really did just want to do this to support his 2nd grade science fair project. The idea here was to take lumber I had on hand and build something that could serve as a testbed for installing an arduino-based millisecond timer. I drew up the design just because I had a couple pieces of 8' clear pine lumber sitting in the shop.
From start to finish on this one was only about a week. I'm under a deadline here. Liam's science expo is in four weeks.
Design Notes:
Based entirely around a pair of 8' 1 by 3's I had on hand. The track run is hardboard, which is set into a shallow dado on each wall and the two end caps. The end caps are just some 1/2" birch plywood scraps, screwed into the sidewalls. I strengthened the horizontal strength of the track by using more 1/2" ply scraps underneath.
The whole thing is then set on a leg made out of 2x4 BORG lumber that I jointed. I sanded the edges to get rid of the splinter problem. Liam sanded the edges of the track. :-)
The whole thing is glued and screwed together.
Afterthoughts:
Getting the hardboard to sit in the too-shallow dados was difficult. The dados were really only about 1/8" deep. I'd go 1/4" next time, especially since the hardboard has a tendency to curl along its length.
Project Files:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Liams 2014-March Science Expo - spreadsheet.xlsx | 16.89 KB |
