Newbie Needs Starting Gate Design

[Vacationland Racing]

Hi guys! I am new and need some help with a starting gate.

My son and I just built a test track. It needed to be fairly low cost so we followed the plans in the "Physics and the Pinewood Derby" DVD. For those who don't know, that design uses a track surface is made out of the underside of exterior siding (0.5" thick) which is smoother than under-sanded plywood. Lane guides are pine lathe material. Anyway, we built a track with a total length of 32'. It's simple with no timer or starting gate.

The problem with this is while this was a great father/son project for scouts, the track isn't really good for anything much other determining which of multiple cars is faster.

Long story short, I just ordered a timer from Swanberg Technologies for a hot $44 including shipping. Need to still do some work to the timer first - another scout project.

Now we need a starting gate. Does anyone have a good easy to follow design for one that we could have?

Also, what do you think of the idea of placing another timer 2' before the finish line? it will allow us to see what cars are running the fastest over the last 2 feet. In a close race, it might help us calculate which cars might be faster over a longer track. Any thoughts?

[down4derby]

Hey, glad to here you built a test track. I built a simple two lane track last year. For the gate I wanted to avoid a spring pull design as the speed of action depends on the operator. What I did was take a heavy door hinge and attach a piece of lath to each side. Next I drilled 2 holes in the lath on one side of the hinge. I epoxyed 2 large nails in the holes for starting pins. Cut 2 slots in your rails at the starting point and attach the hinge to the bottom. I made a lever wich locks the hinge against the bottom of the track. The hinge is heavy enough to drop consistently with gravity however a spring might help. You probably have eveything you need already to make a simple gate. With a timer you might want a better design than mine but for race comparison it has worked great. In my experience working with lath as rails you should decide wich side youre going to ride and pull that side of the lath straight as its hard without alot of sanding and working to get both sides of the lath to run straight and not wavy. After setting up the track if you have any seems that are too harsh put packing tape over them (got this idea from racing hotwheels).

[Vacationland Racing]

[glow=red,2,300]Great!![/glow] Do you have a picture? ;D

Thanks

[down4derby]

Very,very crude as it was built in an afternoon with what was lying around however it works pretty well. If you use a hinge make sure the pin doesnt walk out. I used campershell foam tape for my stop sections. Hope this helps a little.

[Vacationland Racing]

Thank you so much for posting pictures. Looks good! I will follow this unless someone else has some more simple!