There are undoubtedly some really unpleasant and frustrating jobs associated with model railroading. I thought installing those tiny little grab irons were it - but then I encountered the so-called torsion springs in Kadee couplers. After bending one completely out of shape. launching one across the kitchen and realizing my fat, chubby little fingers weren’t capable of managing anything like that, I put the whole thing away and went to dinner and a sanity check.
So I think I have found the most frustrating job thus far - installing (?) Kadee ‘torture springs’. What’s yours? [swg]
HA! Try dealing with the same in N-scale. Those MT springs seem to launch themselves over distances that seem impossible (assuming they can be found). [banghead][(-D]
Kadee sells a tool called the Spring Pick. It holds the spring in place while you insert it onto the coupler pegs. If that doesn’t work, take a needle and a piece of thread about 2 ft. long and thread it thru the spring. Install the coupler and carefully back the string out of the spring. The string also helps you find the spring if it slips out of your hands. It’s easier to see the string on the floor with the spring still attached than getting on your hands and knees with an optivisor on your head trying to find the spring in the carpet. …[:S] Chuck
Leave the thread attached to the spool, except for the half-meter or so with the needle at the end. Tie a bow knot with the needle end to form a loop, with the spring in the looped part. If you lose control of the spring, just grab the thread at the spool and retrieve it - you won’t even have to get out of your chair.
As for what model railroad-related job I hate, try anything involving trying to use a soldering gun overhead. That’s why I moved all my electricals out to the fascia line, and went to nut-on-stud terminal blocks for all my connections.
Isn’t that precisely why Kadee includes extra coupler springs in their package?
I personally use the famous “tip of an Xacto Blade stuck into the spring 2/3s of its length” method, but no matter what, I cannot envison getting that knuckle spring into the coupler with just one’s fingers.
It has been a while, thank heavens, since I had to do this task, but following an old “kink” in MR I simply used an Xacto knife blade to hold the spring and put the smallest tiniest dab of Goo imaginable on one “finger” of the coupler knuckle. That actually made the operation fairly easy. Thick fingers were not an issue. Wearing bifocals – now there was the challenge!
It would be hard to disagree. My experience is that I need on average 3 springs for every one I install because the other two will go flying across the room, never to be seen again.
It is until you’re down to your last spring because all of the extras went flying across the room too! I used to do the hobby knife thing. The investment in the kadee spring pick was a good one. Now I loose only half the springs that I normally would using the Spring pick instead of the exacto knife. (Some things like the theme of this thread ----are pure torture!)
Do yourself a favor and buy a pair of needle-nose pliers.
A good pair is made of stainless steel and can run you $15-$25 but they are well worth the cost. They’re handy for a number of tasks (besides spring installation) and should be part of your modeling tool arsenal. Just be sure to place the protective cap/cone back over the tip when they are not in use because the tips can damage easily. For me, these make Kadee spring installations MUCH more of a pleasant experience.
When installing a Kadee coupler spring: I grab the end coil of the spring with the tweezers, place it over the nipple on the back of the coupler, then compress the spring so that it slides over other nipple. Even if the spring slips off the first nipple, you have a good grasp of the spring with the tweezers so that it doesn’t go flying across the room. Once a spring is successfully installed, just let go of the spring with your tweezers. I can install a coupler spring in ~5-10 sec.
Lastly, Harold, if you don’t already have one, buy yourself a magnification visor, like an Optivisor. These are probably the #1 most used tool in my MRR tool box. My tweezers run a close 2nd.
Seriously, I have to second pretty much all of the suggestions. The Kadee tool really works. So does the drop of glue on one end. I like tweezers, too, but I don’t use them for this job. And yes, bifocals and some sort of illuminated magnification system makes many of these small tasks easier.
And somewhere, there is a parallel universe where small green philosophical beings wonder where all these little springs are coming from.
LOL - thanks for all the suggestions - but I am not talking about the little coil springs that go onto the couplers - I have enough of those everywhere. I am talking about the ‘torsion springs’ that come in the Kadee #37’s.
Fortunately I found another Kadee that worked in the application I was retrofitting and I was able to regain my sanity.
I only used them once, didn’t seem so bad. I do now use the ‘whisker’ couplers in place of the same #5 variation since the whiskers are much easier to handle than the flat spring pans used for #5’s.
As for the coils, all of the Kadees I have purchased in the past couple of years, both in the two pair packs and bulk packs, has had the knuckle spring already in place on each and every coupler. ANd since I haven’t dropped any on a hard surface lately, none have fallen out. Someone showed me long ago the knife blade trick and when I’ve needed to reinstall a knuckle spring I’ve had no issue. And no, I am not one of those people blessed with 20/15 or better vision, I have very thick glasses and I am dreading my next eye exam as I just know I really need bifocals now. Compared to, say, cutting the ultra fine grabs off the sprue on a Branchline Blueprint kit, I find Kadee knuckles springs to be each. It’s tempting on those kits to forego the plastic and just make replacement metal grabs and ladders.
Try manipulating 3mm LED holders with your chubby fingers, especially on a black under mat on the bench. Solution - small pair of pliers to insert them. Having bought 100 and used 20, I’m going to have a massive clear up and find the 50 that are hiding on the bench somewhere.
In medical parlance, these are called “mosquito forceps”. The next time you go to the ER to get stitches (oh, yes you will), ask them if you can keep the ones they use on you. Since they’v
I have to disagree with the OP on this subject. How about putting the CA in the holes for the last grab iron only to hear your tweezers make that dreaded click noise as the last custom bent, not easily duplicated grab goes flying into never never land with all the single socks, coupler springs, screw gun bits, $, and every other thing to be lost forever.With the coupler there is extra springs but now I have dried glue and a lost grab.
My attempt at training the Beagle to sniff out lost MR parts has been in vain. She just doesn’t grasp the concept of needing to find lost parts. I thought if I can train her to sniff out lost grabs and coupler springs I could rent her to other modelers to supplement my train dollars.
