coaster

Yes, all molded. I don't 3D print beyond prototyping.

They are gone, however, Chrome Block City has started up a new website, so you can still get anything you may need chromed: http://www.chromeblockcity.com/ I'm not aware of who else did chroming work, but I imagine they would likewise have moved to their own webpages.

Yep, post switches, I'll do R72 and R88.

Just an update of where things stand: I need to make some changes to the indexing mechanism of the switch stand. I put @Cale to work over the weekend at the NILTC show and made him click it back and forth for about an hour. It wasn't working quite how I wanted it to, and as expected, the clicks wore out by the end. On the switches themselves, the anti-studs on the bottom need quite a bit of work still, either clutching too tightly or so tightly that they can't even be assembled. There are a few other minor areas in need of improvement, but everything is being fixed. Beyond this, I probably won't have any further updates until after Christmas.

The rumors are true; we have new wheels in process. You should see them available shortly after New Year's.

The rules are specific for 1) no 3D printed parts, and 2) no modified in any way bricks. Plus, they told me I'm good. ;) Even so, I do so little on BrickLink, even if they did blanket ban all non-LEGO elements, it would have virtually no effect on me.

@M_slug357Nope, I'm not cut off at all. I can continue to sell tracks on BL with no issue. They clearly have an aversion to printed or modified bricks, but my molded tracks are perfectly fine.

Making inspections. Lots of things needing to be fixed still, but we're getting there.

Yep, moving to steel to improve the finish, plus the aluminum tooling doesn't last forever, and we were seeing the first signs of wear.

Left and right switch bases A and B pieces, left and right points and coverplates, the throwarm that moves the point (same for both left and right), the switch stands are 5 pieces, and then (2) special R104 curves. Also rebuilding the standard R104 tool. We'll have the switch stands available as a spare part or if someone 3D prints their own specialty switches and wants to use them. Probably won't sell the component parts loose.

T1 samples come Monday. These will be what the mold shop believes to be final samples, but I'm sure there will still need to be some tweaks to things. I know it's a long slow process, but there are 18 new pieces with multiple cavities for each. To say the devil's in the details is an understatement.

LEGO's cool with me, so I'm not concerned.

Molds still need some work, but the parts are functional. Next batch should be what the mold shop believes to be good, but there are often still tweaks to be made. These first few pieces though will be touring around at shows though if you'd like to see them. They'll be in Lincoln and then at Cantingy in December.

First mold test! Tool still needs to be polished, but all the structures came out like they should.

Not yet. Still cutting the molds. Kinda hoped to have the first pieces by now, but I'd rather they be right than rushed.

@Ludo You don't need to ream it. The ball bearing has an OD of 5mm, a Technic hole is 4.85mm, so it will press in quite nicely with a little bit of force.

Yep. We're cruisin' right along.

Originally, it was insufficient cooling time at the factory. They increased the hold time, and that mostly took care of it. It does seem to come up in the summer months, so there could be an issue with hot shipping trucks. Keep in mind, it takes only a very tiny amount of deformation for problems to propagate. A 1/2° of flex over 32 pieces of track translates to being more than an entire piece off. If any are way off though, just let me know and I'll replace them.

The deformation is something we've battled with on and off. We initially had issues with them coming deformed out of the mold, but that's been fixed, and we do spot checks of circles with each batch. We do get comments on this occasionally, and seems to come up most in summertime. The best thing to do is pin them to shape with some 2x4 plates and leave them that way for a while. If needed, add a little bit of heat with either a hair dryer or put them in hot water. They should relax and return to shape. For finish, unfortunately, those are as good as we can get them. The first tracks we made were done in aluminum molds, and it is much more difficult to hold a high polish in the aluminum. The short straights and everything moving forward are all steel tools though, so they have a much higher shine like the LEGO ones. We are also starting to rebuild the curve tracks in the steel to improve the polish and implement a few changes which will solve the deformation issues for good.

You should build in 1:38 (10-wide). It's prototypical to the tracks, and at 1 stud = 1 foot, it makes scaling easy. Yes, it's huge, but it looks soooooo good!

I need to start making room for new things, and I have too many R120s in the way, so I've put them on sale if you were on the fence about getting some!

To clarify, we hadn't gotten to the point of making that first mold; we found the issues during the mold design process. Instead we've pivoted from 1 larger mold to 2 smaller ones, but that's still a more expensive option. It's more important to get it right.

Correct.

Hi everyone, just an update on where we stand. Moldflow analysis showed that we were going to have some issues with deformation in the cooling process. LEGO might have just run with it, but since we'd all prefer our tracks to lay flat, I wasn't going to just leave it alone. We made a few tweaks that helped a little, but ultimately the best solution was to split the parts into two: This does add some cost as it requires another mold, but ultimately it's the right decision. This will also help facilitate the double cross overs when we do those. This has added some time to when we'll start seeing parts, but I don't expect too much of a delay. Like I will always say though, I'd rather it be late than substandard.

@Giottist We are working with an outfit in Europe to distribute these. And yes, the casual builders will simply adapt to the new wheelsets, but that is really not an option for the bigger builders. Also, you don't even have to drill out the Technic bricks. The .2mm is small enough that you can use a press or vice to press the bearing into place.