PVC pipe finish line

Prompted by a recent thread going on over in the forum, I thought I’d share a few thoughts about a PVC pipe. Not only is it great for your bathroom, it could be great for your race track. Easy to work with and easy on the wallet, PVC has a lot going for it.

There are few options for finish lines

There’s a discussion going on in the forum about mechanical finish line designs. Sure, the electric finish lines come with lights, timers, and other gizmos, but unless you want to dish out a cool $100, you’re left with less fancy options – especially if you don’t have any electrical skills. I’m one of those people. Give me wood, springs, and some tools and I’m good. Give me a bundle of wire, a 9-volt battery and some LEDs and I have no clue.

Last summer I did try my hand at building an electronic finish line, however. A co-worker graciously built me a sensor LED kit. He made it with $30 of parts from Radio Shack and designed it with long leads so I could use it how I saw fit. From the get-go my thought was to use PVC pipe to create a finish line structure.

Completed PVC pipe finish line (kinda works)

Good for plumbing, great for finish lines

Not only is PVC pipe strong and solid, but it’s easy to cut. You can saw it (or Dremmel) it pretty evenly to any size you need. PVC pipe is sold in parts and assembled, which means you can un-assemble it for easy storage – always a plus in my mind. And since it’s a pipe, it’s ideal for hiding wires. I made a PVC “bridge” that sat over the track, drilled some holes facing down and out. The downward holes are where the sensor LEDs went, and the outward holes were for the LED lights to denote the winner.

Lane 2 wins!

I also had to build a platform so there would be a place for the lower sensor LEDs to be. The structure and build itself went great but the electronics didn’t quite work as well as I had hoped. The LED sensors went all wishy-washy when I tried to race in sunlight. I wasn’t outdoors, but the the room has big windows that let in lots of natural light. Inside the house where it was darker and the LEDs worked great…in the light, not so well. But it was a fun project that I haven’t entirely thrown out…I just wasn’t sure how else to apply it.

The PVC flipper finish line

But a recently Redline Derby member Ralph added his thoughts to a thread in the forum about using PVC pipe that was all mechanical. It involves using PVC parts to create, for lack of a better term, a flipper system that can denote the winner. It’s not as flashy as an electronic line nor as complicated as a playset finish line, but it looks to do the trick wonderfully. If anything, it gets people like me thinking about how to add on to the idea and make it even better.

Ralph's PVC finish line

I also like the mechanical designs because it doesn’t require any modifications be made to the track itself, like holes or slots. I think designs like Ralph’s also lend themselves to various racetracks too – not just 2-lane tracks nor just Hot Wheels orange track. I’m still looking for a finish line that will support the strip of BluTrack I have and hope that a PVC solution can be easily created.

What type of finish line do you have? Did you buy yours or make it? Check out the discussion in the forum and share your thoughts with myself, Ralph, and the rest.