some Athearn engines have hard to place hand rail holes for the stanchions and when i get one of them in the hole they break or bend and with Kato (which are excellent) engines have plastec pieces and they break trying to get them off the peice they were on
You may need a pin vise & mini drill to pre-drill the holes.www.kadee.com #240 and click to
pull down a pin vise picture.
Also need a spru cutter to separate the parts.
Re Athearn - it takes practice that is for sure
The trick is to work slowly and carefully and use a very good needle nose pliers, not your fingers. It sounds to me like you might be bring in the stanchion at a slight angle to the hole, even if it looks like 90 degrees. Work under good light. Make sure the model is on a cushioned surface but cannot move.
Don’t ream the hole too much if at all. A touch of ACC once the stanchion is in place helps. By the way if you bend a stanchion – replacements from Athearn are pretty cheap.
Dave Nelson
When using the Athearn metal stantions, I take each one and carefully file a beveled point into the end that will be pressed into the locomotive. I have found that this, although a bit time consuming, keeps me from having to ream out the hole for the stantion. I have found that after inserting the stantion, there is no need to use ACC to secure it as the pressure of the hole will hold it in place. I do place ACC on the joint between the stantion and handrail to keep 'em straight. The reason I don’t glue the stantion to the lokie is that on rare occasions, I have had to remove the handrail and stantions. This process is much simpler since they are not glued in place.[:D]
some Athearn engines have hard to place hand rail holes for the stanchions and when i get one of them in the hole they break or bend and with Kato (which are excellent) engines have plastec pieces and they break trying to get them off the peice they were on
You may need a pin vise & mini drill to pre-drill the holes.www.kadee.com #240 and click to
pull down a pin vise picture.
Also need a spru cutter to separate the parts.
Re Athearn - it takes practice that is for sure
The trick is to work slowly and carefully and use a very good needle nose pliers, not your fingers. It sounds to me like you might be bring in the stanchion at a slight angle to the hole, even if it looks like 90 degrees. Work under good light. Make sure the model is on a cushioned surface but cannot move.
Don’t ream the hole too much if at all. A touch of ACC once the stanchion is in place helps. By the way if you bend a stanchion – replacements from Athearn are pretty cheap.
Dave Nelson
When using the Athearn metal stantions, I take each one and carefully file a beveled point into the end that will be pressed into the locomotive. I have found that this, although a bit time consuming, keeps me from having to ream out the hole for the stantion. I have found that after inserting the stantion, there is no need to use ACC to secure it as the pressure of the hole will hold it in place. I do place ACC on the joint between the stantion and handrail to keep 'em straight. The reason I don’t glue the stantion to the lokie is that on rare occasions, I have had to remove the handrail and stantions. This process is much simpler since they are not glued in place.[:D]