Stop Boxes
After reading a few post about various methods of stopping cars. I thought I would show off my "Stop Box" and see what the collective thinks. I know some have stated that abrupt stops can damage cars,...but what kind of damage? So far this has worked well for me, and it keeps the cars from slamming into each other, chipping paint, scratches etc. Let me know what you think. O yeah, show everyone what you are using, with pictures to give us a better idea.
Preacher
Discussion
Have to admit that right now I'm using the classic towel-at-the-end-of-the-track stop box. Not pretty, but it works.
I have a jacket that's quilted on the inside. I fold it in half and turn the top side/zipper back. Tuck the bottom under the track. The cars just shoot into the jacket. The jacket also slides back a little with each race. So it's never a dead stop. Once in a while I can't find a car because it went up a sleeve! Also once in a while I reach down in there and a car is on it's back and the wheels are still spinning. Pretty amazing considering I just had to walk 30+ feet and the car is inside a jacket with its wheels spinning still.
I like that catch-box. It gets the job done! The foam will start to
get torn up after awhile so keep the pieces out of the wheel-wells.Has anybody tried memory foam? I had bought some but I never
got around to testing it out.
I keep that in mind, but at the moment it is holding up just fine. By the time the cars get to the end of the 40+ feet of track they are not impacting the foam all that hard...its just there to cushion the stop. The foam came from one of those furry car washing things. I just cut the furry stuff off and removed the foam...it was something I had laying around the house...that was free.
Preacher
i just finished a - "stop tubes" - stopbox... made from stuff around MY house... it has 7 different forms of shock absorbtion... 18.75" long, x 7.25" wide, x 2.5" tall,
it plugs in to the ends of any orange track... i'll take some pix after the cruise nite tonight and zap them to a much more skilled computerist for R.D.R. posting...
"it" will be looking for a good home [ hopefully one of our track hosts ]... as i use "drag track" sets, .... and a towel....
edit ; thanks jim...
I think your cereal box is great, I love it! I also used the "flaps" design in a early stop box I created that has since be destroyed. The flaps do a lot to slow the cars down without any real damage, so by the time it gets into the actual catch box it's going pretty slow. I think what you have there is perfect...in fact, I might steal the design a bit.
However you do have the luxury of having the track continue beyond the finish line it looks like. The finish gate I have is a "dead end" for the track so I need to create something to actually catch the cars, but I think you're box design can be tweaked to do just what I need.
I've seen some stop boxes that are pretty shallow and don't have much foam at the end, plus there were no flaps or anything to slow them down so they just hit the end full steam and clunked real hard. Some cars will handle it fine but when you're racing custom cars you don't want them hitting much of anything. I know a few of the mods I've put together fell apart when they hit something! Shoddy craftsman ship on my part but it's those type of things you have to be careful about.