Venture Copper tape (33m x 5mm roll)

 £11.50 To improve electrical conductivity on your permanent layout, try laying continuous adhesive copper tape over the top of the rails. This will cover up any shortcomings in the connections between your individual track pieces, and provide continuous power all the way around. One roll will do two lanes of a typical 8m home layout (the largest sets contain 7-8m of track). Suitable for any brand or type of plastic/plexi track or MDF routed layouts, but especially useful for digital circuits where poor electrical contact can sometimes cause the on-board chips in the cars to re-set themselves with unexpected results. If you watched the James May programme on Scalextric at Brooklands you will have seen that when heated to extremes, the track joins can buckle and separate - so if your track is in a loft or garden shed where large fluctuations in temperature occur, this will help overcome these issues.

This is VentureTape "Masterfoil Plus" quick-stick heat resistant conductive copper foil with acrylic adhesive - sticks directly and firmly to the silver rails (and to itself, for joins/overlaps). We have located an industrial bulk supplier of this tape who can supply loose rolls cut for us in 5mm widths from a tape "log", so we should usually have access to plenty of tape for your needs.

Application: peel off backing and apply tape to each rail, in sections as long as possible. Press tape down firmly and leave no loose ends or cars could rip the tape up. Where you need to start a new length, e.g. for a lanechanger or a tricky corner, do a small overlap (approx 5mm) forwards (in respect of direction of car travel) over following length of tape. You may want to separately tape the powerbase, lapcounter or other items you might want to take in or out of the layout. At a handful of locations around the track, stuff about 5-10mm of the end of a run of tape into the socket/lug of the track piece, to ensure maximum opportunity for current to flow along surface of tape. Note that removing tape from track leaves adhesive residue behind which will need rubbing off, and also means the tape can't be re-stuck elsewhere, so take care to position it correctly first time.

Please note that some types of cheaper copper tape you may see on Ebay for example, are designed more for crafting purposes than for electrical conductivity - if the tape is too thick it won't conduct as well.

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£11.50 (€14.26) Out of Stock - but do use the "contact us" link at the top of the page to find out if more are due in or may be available on back-order. OUT OF STOCK

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