I was weathering a batch of original style Kadee-5. One thing I noticed when I was finished was, the rough surface of the paint on the knuckle faces made it difficult for the coupler to go together. I polished the knuckle with a pencil,which seemed to work well, but got me to wondering what lengths some of you guys might go to to make coupling as smooth as possible. I usually polish the shank flat with a fine diamond hone and then rub greas-em into it. Has anyone tried using a little silicone,or a tiny bit of grease on the face of the knuckle , and Do you usually file or burnish the face of the knuckle first?
I just place #58’s in the couple box and tighten the screw. I’ve never painted, filed, or lubricated them and they work flawlessly for me. Unless you’re going to take close-ups of the coupler area, seems like a lot of detail work that will most likely go unnoticed.
Do the older Kadee couplers need that much attention to get them to work well?
I file the face of the knuckle to get the parting line off. I also file that little inside corner of the knuckle for the same reason. I gently run a file over the top and bottom of the shank and maybe the edges a bit.
Then I rinse them in a solvent and spray them with a rusty Floquil mix.
I file the coupler shanks down if it feels rough, whether they’re number 5s or the whisker type,etc–they need to be smooth operators. I use Greasem or similar too. I also use shelf couplers where appropriate such as on newer locos, passenger cars and hazardous duty cars. Don’t do a lot of weathering, maybe I should. Of course using the Kadee height gage is important, especially for longer cars. I also shim the shanks or coupler pocket, if the pocket opening is too thick which allows the coupler to droop.
I keep an old piece of #600 wet/ dry paper on the workbench just for this reason. A couple swipes of the shank deburrs/ polishes. I used to weather the knuckle but experienced that grab or snag when coupling. Sometimes, especially w/ such free rolling stock the car would just get bumped instead of coupling.
All I do is place the coupler in the box and then proceed to check the height and coupler trip pin against the KD coupler gauge…I then check the side to side coupler swing and that’s all I do.
I have noticed some differences between ‘old’ Kadee #5’s and ‘new production’ #5’s. The old ones(I have them when they were Kadee #5 & 10 in the 60’s/70’s) seem to have a rough surface and I always took a small mill file to the shanks and the coupler face.
The ‘new’ ones have a more ‘polished’ surface and rarely need clean-up before mounting. The ‘Whisker’ coupler is polished as well. I usually do not take a file to them as I have 3 of them with one of the ‘whiskers’ pulled out from my enthusiastic file work! I only tune them up if there is a problem.
As far as Kadee Greas’em - it is just graphite - You can buy a BIG tube for less than what Kadee charges. Even Walmart has small tubes of the stuff as well. I paid 88 cents for a 3 gram tube about 2 years ago - still have not used it up!
I’ve been using KDs since the early '70s. My process for them is pretty much the same now as it was in the early years…
Inspect for any rough spots, and file smooth. Having a rough spot is unusual, but I have had a few. Then mount and check for free swing left to right, and minimal vertical movement. Adjust the height and most important, the “brake hose” for clearance. Then, you are ready to go.
One thing I have done - more in the past - was to squirt a bit of graphite into the coupler housing and swing area. I don’t find that necessary much anymore, but it is an option.
I have never thought about polishing the mating surfaces of the couplers. Sounds like a good idea, or at least doing a visual check to see what the surfaces look like. I will add that to my checklist for bringing rolling stock up to proper standards.
Those were some good answers; thanks for responding. Yes, Tom the older kadee had a rougher casting that needed more attention than the newer ones; also the bronze spring plate needed to be looked at and leaded up a bit. I think I will experiment with a little litheum grease on the edge of the knuckle, and see how that goes. I know it will attract some dust, but I don’t think that will matter.
Jeff,I use magnets for two reasons…I like the ability to uncouple and then spot the car at the industry.The reason behind that is simple…On my past and planed ISL I place buildings on the front of the layout and uncoupling cars manually at these industries would be a high risk move from having to reach over the building and the newer high end RTR has lots of details like uncoupling bars and air hoses which makes manual uncoupling risky at best.
And there’s the main differences. I keep structures away from the front part of the layout and the edges where I may be working. Being disabled as I am I often use the layout for support so I use those areas to lean on. As for fragile details on rolling stock, some of mine is the newer RTR stuff with the myriads of tiny details but most is the older stuff from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s by Tyco, Bachmann, Mantua, Athearn, AHM, Varney, etc that I got for $2 to $5 each so there’s not a lot that could be damaged due to handling.
I never paint the end face of the coupler for the reason you you determined. My method of putting a coupler into service is to paint the sides of the coupler, top and bottom and exposed end of the shank with Flo-Quil or Scale coat rusty/dirty/dusty colors and I use a pencil to get graphite on the coupler face, part of the shank in the coupler box and assemble. Once the couple is mounted to the car, I push the couple to oneside, squirt some Grease’m into that side and do the same for the other side. Then I would the coupler from side to side 20-30 times. This seems to work pretty well for me.
I follow the directions and burnish the couplers and box where the diagram says to. Usually, it’s pretty fast because there isn’t much need, but sometimes there’s a rough spot or two. After assemble I squirt a little graphite in the box and work the coupler back and forth. I haven’t painted any of them - some come black and some come rust colored, both look okay to me.
Jeff,I can certainly understand that but,when your layout is only 12-14" wide you need to use space wisely.I recently built 2 of Walthers Buds Trucking kits and one Lauston Shipping kit for my planed 12" x10’ ISL.One of these structures will be on the right front of the layout.These are the background structure kits.A team track will be on the left front…
I need two more structures a Walthers Plastic Pellet storage kit and a smaller structure for a nonrailed served industry.
The structures on the front will be removable for maintenance if the need araises…
I can see your point. If your layout is only one foot front to back that doesn’t give you much room to play with. The only places mine is that thin is up by the front by the a/c unit when the park is lifted out and by the east wall when a drop out section is removed for access from underneath and of course between the drop out and the park (lift out).
Well, Bob ,I never used to weather couplers either except drybrush a little brown on them, but then I watched the video Cody put out on weathering. I used masking tape in strips about 8 inchs long to cover the shanks of about 25 couplers at a time, and sprayed some rail brown,some rust, and some mixed. When dry I brushed thinner on the air lies to clean the brown paint off and then painted them a dull black. Then I used silver to put just a dot on the end of the air hose to simulate the glad hand. I weather trucks , and wheelsets, and the body of the car so it just made sense to me to do the couplers as well. I think they look awesome , and I had fun doing it.
