One thing that is difficult to measure consistently and accurately is pickup shoe tension. Pickup shoe tension is the amount of force that is exerted by the pickup shoe at the point of contact of the track rail. Here's a tool that can be easily made to measure that force and help you to make sure both shoes are equal and that they are not exerting too much force... just enough force to maintain shoe contact but not too much that it encourages a de-slot. If this interests you then read on...

We've all seen the static armature balancers... you know the razor blades or the jeweler's poising tool. But the slickest balancers I've seen are those magnetic ones. They are great but they are pretty pricey. That said, I did some research on the webbernet and found this article in Slotcar Illustrated's forum by "jaybo" It was a great article and gave me a great start. If you are interested in making your own balancer then read on.

Those people that travel around to race at different venues usually have a pit box. They can range from a basic cigar box all the way to a custom made pit box. I have been looking to upgrade my pit box but could never decide exactly what I wanted. One of the biggest issues for me was how to utilize the pit box. In addition I needed a pit box that would travel well in the car or on occasion by plane. It also had to be versatile so I could easily swap out the cars and parts depending on the race classes at the different venues. Then one day I was cruising around the webbernet and there it was! See picture to the right.

I was in the local home center the other day and spotted an attachment for my Dremel Motor Tool. The attachment allowed the Dremel to work like the Zip-N-All. After looking at it for a few minutes I determined that I could use it to help me grind T-Jet body posts when lowering a body on the chassis. The great thing about this is you can remove post material and still maintain a square post. If you're interested in how I did this then take a look.

When trying to improve the performance of a "Pancake" motor one component to take a look at would be the motor magnets in the car. Having magnets of equal strength helps to maintain equal pull on the armature and therefore perpetuates electrical balance in the car. To do this you will need to determine the strength of each magnet. Enter stage right the One Stop Slot Shop (OS3) Magnet Matcher (MM).

Below are some more pictures of the tool and how it addresses adjusting the pick up shoes.