Here I will share how I make my Sergent Uncoupling tools. You can buy one through Sergent Engineering, but they will cost you 6 dollars per. Mine are a bit cheaper and work better.
You will need a few things to build these tools.
3mm x 1mm rare earth magnets (Ebay 10 dollars for 50)
3mm bamboo stick (dollar store 100 for 1 dollar)
brass wire (hobby shop 5 dollars, enough for hundreds of tools).
3mm and 4mm heat shrink tubing of any color (electronics store)
CA Cement
Soldering iron or heat gun
CA Cement a magnet to the end of a bamboo stick
Slip a length of 3mm heat shrink tubing over the magnet and the stick.
Slip a longer length of 4mm heat shrink tubing over the first heat shrink tubing. Pull it further back to help with the next step.
Twist a piece of brass wire between the layers of heat shrink tubing.
Work the 4mm tubing forward to the end of the tool once the brass wire it in and trim the brass wire to 1/8" or whatever length you want to manipulate the knuckle of the coupler.
Heat up your work with a heat gun or the nick of a soldering iron. This will fix everything in place.
Here I will share how I make my Sergent Uncoupling tools. You can buy one through Sergent Engineering, but they will cost you 6 dollars per. Mine are a bit cheaper and work better.
1. You will need a few things to build these tools.
3mm x 1mm rare earth magnets (Ebay 10 dollars for 50)
I can hear the “click” of the ball bearing with the Sergent tool. No significant point to what I said, maybe my hearing isn’t as bad as I thought. Thanks for the project you just shared, it’ll be a good fix for when I need more uncoupling tools.
Great posting, as I am inevitably losing mine. And, it can be modified further to also work with Kadees, if anyone is in a club that uses Kadee couplers. One question, does the stronger magnet wreck havoc on wire details; Metal grabs etc.?
Sure, on the opposite end file the skewer so it looks sort of like a small flat screwdriver blade, and you can stick it in the knuckles of Kadee couplers and twist them open. This is what I use as uncoupling tools - a pack of skewers lasts a long time even if you loose a dozen or so. I find this works best on real Kadee couplers and not any of the plastic or two piece knockoffs, but that’s ok, any car or loco I get that comes with the knockoffs I replace with real Kadees anyway.
If you can get by without the little wire on the end to twist the knuckles open on the Sergent couplers, any piece of fairly stiff steel wire can be magnetized by leaving it stuck to a large magnet for a couple of minutes.
