Slot Cars and Air Compressors

In life, there are some things that just come naturally. For me these have always been the mechanical type things. I spent hours as a child taking apart and rebuilding my toys, especially the electronic kind. I think I was kind of like that kid that lived next door to Woody and Buzz in the movie Toy Story, but without the explosives.

My personal favorite was my slot car track. I quickly discovered that I could not only take apart and rearrange the track, but the cars as well. My slot car inventory was organized into three distinct groups, each securely kept in it’s own plastic Parkay butter bowl garage/workshop.

· Group 1: New Cars – These were the cars (usually not more that two at any one time) that I still liked the way they were. I left these alone, because didn’t want to take the chance of messing up a good thing.

· Group 2: Redesigned Cars – These were all the cars that I had owned long enough to get bored with. I would take them apart, mix and match the pieces and by some twist of fate, get them to run again. A few of these cars were now actually faster than before, but more often than not they ran slow and pretty rough.

· Group 3: The Parts Pile – This was all the extra tires, magnets, connectors, plastic body shells, and all the other leftover pieces that did not yet have a place among my collection of Redesigned Cars. It always seemed odd to me that while the first two groups stayed pretty much the same size this group was forever growing.

These days I don’t have a slot car track, but I still have a love of, as well as my knack for, anything mechanical. That’s why a couple of years ago I asked for an air compressor for Christmas.

"What in the world does he want with an air compressor?” This was the reply from my father-in-law.

In my mind I had, and still have, visions of spectacular woodworking projects that I could accomplish if I only had a tool as compact and versatile as an air compressor. Not to mention the plethora of auto and household types of maintenance and chores that could quite obviously be completed much more quickly and easily.

Quickly sensing that mine was an uphill battle, I seized each and every opportunity I had to enlighten the unbelievers in my family and help them see the benefits of my owning what I had begun referring to as, ‘The Mother of all Power Tools.’

But Christmas came and there was no air compressor shaped package under the tree.

A little disheartened, but not defeated, I set my sights on the following Christmas. And this time I had a full year to educate and lure supporters from the dark side of the power tool force.

After a year of some subtle and some not so subtle hint dropping I not only got my air compressor, but two nail guns to boot.

We’re going on one year of life with an air compressor and while it’s come in handy for countless repairs around the house, so far I’ve only actually used the compressor and nail guns to build one thing…a stand for the air compressor itself to set upon.

This is no rinky-dink, scrap wood stand that I hastily threw together one day after downing a few brews. Oh no, I used a t-square and all my high school mechanical drawing knowledge to draft the top, front, and right side views. I had all the measurements and knew exactly how much lumber to buy. For structural stability, as well as storage, I added a shelf on the bottom to hold my nail guns. It has a drawer to hold all the different blower attachments and a hook on the side for coiling the air hose. I even designed the top with a set of three 45-degree corner mounts to secure the compressor’s tripod stand. Then I primed it and painted it flat black.

It’s very nice. In fact, it’s so nice that my father, who got an air compressor about the same time I got mine, had me help him build one. My Dad’s, not being the prototype, actually turned out a little bit better than mine.

I’m not sure what became of my slot car wrecking yard. However, it’s not hard to imagine how three butter bowls filled with an odd assortment of car parts could have been confused with unwanted junk and tossed into the trash pile by mistake. It probably happened long after I had left home.

However, as I put the finishing touches on my compressor stand, stood back to inspect my work and couldn’t help but think about that little boy who spent all those hours with his slot car track.

In some ways I’m still that same little boy who dismantled all those slot cars, only now my toys are bigger and come equipped with two nail guns.


I had planned to attach a picture of the compressor stand, but I haven't had the time to figure out how to do that yet. I'll post the picture later.