Has anyone ever tried using either the wire wheel or a felt wheel soaked in alcohol from their dremel moto tool to clean the wheels of your loco’s?
I have some hard packed crude on the wheels of one of my loco’s and the spinning on a alcohol soaked towel isn’t getting it off completely.
This idea occurred to me in the shower 5 minutes ago…so I thought I’d ask before I give it a go. As I pose this question I am thinking that the wire tool may be too abrasive and possibly scratch the wheel, leaving it more susceptable to picking up crude. Do you concure? What of the felt wheel? Will it work, or will the alcohol simple fly off it soaking everything in the spinning arc? Guess I better wear some eye protection before tryinh this…[(-D]
I have used my dremel tool for cleaning loco wheels, BUT,BUT,BUT, I use a brass brush, not a steel one. Any scratches on those wheels will ABSOLUTELY give dirt and crude something to stick to then snowball real fast. Also DO NOT use this method on plastic wheels. The safest suggestion I can make is to use a tooth pick to scrap the realy hard stuff off. Ken
I’ve done it, but as said above, be careful. Use a soft wire brush, don’t press too hard, and be careful of plastic axles (the bearings tend to melt…). It’s good for heavily-crudded wheels though it has problems with grease or oil contamination in my experience. Hope this is of use!
DON’T use a wire wheel in a Dremel tool; the wire scrapes the heck out of the surface of the wheelsets, making future cleanings a real PITA. The felt wheels in alcohol work better, but you have to clean off all the cotton fuzz from the wheels afterwards.
I generally use a Q-Tip soaked in alcohol for rolling stock wheelset, and paper towels soaked in alcohol and draped over my test track to clean engine wheels.
For really tough buildup of gunk on your wheels, I would recommend getting a rag and soak it in Goo-Gone and run the engine wheels slowly on the rag, let it soak for a bit to get the Goo-Gone to react, then do the normal rag on track cleaning.
The reason I recommend that way, is I noticed on some of my engines that I haven’t used in a while they will sortof cake up and harded. Using my regular track/wheel cleaner doesn’t work as well as Goo-Gone, it seems to have some agents that can break up the crud. After they are clean I then use my “non” oily cleaner to get the Goo-Gone off. I used Goo-Gone for everything in the begining but found it left a film that in itself added junk.
The wire brush idea, I am steering away from, I am concerned about microscopic scratches that will be a dirt/crud magenet. I even have dumped the bright boy pads for polish on the tracks. The more we can keep the metal surface blemish free the less prone they may be to getting dirty easier.
Just my thoughts. Wow I am typing way to much in my replies this AM…
I use a brass wire brush in a Dremel to remove the black plating from Kadee HO wheelsets (holding the axle in a pliers and wearing eye protection and a painters cap to prevent little wires from getting in what remains of my hair – I can feel them hit my cheeks and nose).
The shiny treads look more realistic to me than the dark brown coating Kadee uses
But I do this when the wheels are new out of the package, not removed from existing cars. To my way of thinking this method is overkill and a lot of work for removing dirt. And I agree I do not think you would want to do this over and over again with the same wheel – you have to be removing at least a tiny bit of the actual surface.
Dave Nelson
I have an old engine with metal wheels on one side of each truck, and plastic on the other. (It’s an ancient Hobbytown.) I used the felt wheel with success on the metal wheels, but just a touch on those plastic wheels left a flat spot. Oh, well, the motor isn’t good for anything, either. Of course, there are many who would argue that the best thing you can do to plastic wheels is replace them with metal ones anyway.
My Dremel came with a “wire wheel” except that the wires were bristles. They hold cleaner much like a paint brush holds paint. Use the slowest speed possible and a light touch. I have no plastic wheels but If I did, I wouldn’t use the Dremel for them.
Just my$0.03 (CDN.)
BB
I have use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and find this works quite well…I DO NOT recommend the wire wheel because you can scratch your wheels and shavings can end up in your gears or be drawn into your motor by the magnet.
Remove the wheels, if practicable, and soak them in dish detergent and hot water. Not overly hot so that plastic axles don’t deform. Then scrub the surfaces with a Chore Girl, or plastic scrubbing pad like you have under your kitchen sink. Dry them and use Goof-Off, Goo Gone, whatever, with a cotton Q-tip. Scrub the entire running surface and you will find them quite clean.
I would not use a Dremel tool wire wheel. I might try the felt pad, but at low speed. You can always wipe the wheels with a clean cloth if fibres are a problem later.
I use the brass wire brush chucked into a 7.5V battery unit set on speed step 1. It does a good job, doesn’t scratch, the brush doesn’t come apart, and it does a really good job of removing the blackening from Kadee, Intermountain, etc. wheel sets.
I had one Athearn diesel that stubbornly refused normal attempts at wheel cleaning, and it already had NWSL wheels on it. My solution was to disassemble the trucks and chuck each wheel in my Dremel individually. I spun them on a towel coated with a bit of Maguiars metal restorer. Worked great and they seem to be staying clean now.
The Dremel can be a little fierce, but the small 12v mototools, with a steel brush, and at low speed, have worked well for me. Plated wheels stay plated, and grubby wheels shine better than new.
I have wiped out a couple of traction tires, this way, but with the amount of hard crud that was on the wheels I didn’t even know that they were there.
The wire brush is at its best on Athearn loco wheels - the sintered steel ones - that normally have pits in them already.
i would use low power 9v drill with the plastic brush but not a dremel. a dremel is 1/3 of a horsepower. i think that is way overkill for cleaning wheels.
I cleaned about 15 years of oxidation off of some brass Life Like loco wheels this morning, by hand with 1500 grit sandpaper which left a polished surface.