I recently purchased some inexpensive Walthers diaphrams which I planned to install on some P1K F3 units. I have a bad habit of not reading instructions but in this case I have a good excuse. There aren’t any. There really isn’t much to these. The diaphram folds seem to be made of a pleated fabric or fiber material. The frame plates are made of metal painted black. I’m guessing you simply glue one end of the diaphram folds to the frame of the end door and then attach the frame plate to the other end. Since I am joining three different materials I am wondering what the best adhesive would be. I thought of epoxy but it might be difficult to hold the springy folds in place while the epoxy cures without risking getting whatever I use for a clamp glued to the piece as well. Super glue might be a better option but I wonder if it would hold up over the long term. If anyone has any experience with these diaphrams, I would appreciate any pointers you could offer.
I don’t know how “New” it is but I just recently discovered Loctite “Super Glue Gel”. It seems to work really well and actually holds lighter pieces in place due to it’s consistency.
Je–
I’ve used the Walther’s diaphragms on some older Rivarossi head-end passenger cars that I wanted to up-grade, and what worked for me, after trial and error, is plain old contact cement. It’s a little messy, and you really need to apply it sparingly with a toothpick to each surface, then let the surface dry and press the parts together–CAREFULLY, because once they contact each other, that’s it and you don’t have much adjustment room. The old Walther’s diaphraghms work surprisingly well as far as flexibility goes, however.
Tom
I would highly reccomend that you invest in some American Limited diaphragms. The old Walthers “accordian” diaphragms look alright on heavyweight passenger cars, but not so much on diesels.
Edit: Another consideration is that depending on the “years” that you are modeling, the prototype F3s may or may not have had diaphragms. Many railroads removed the diaphragms form their Fs in later years (I have heard that some were removed soon after delivery).
For the price you can’t beat the Walthers and they are very forgiving on the layout. I have never had them snag on curves as they are pretty soft and “squish” around much more than the rigid plastuic like Am Ltd. In the old days I used Goo, but it will sometimes attack plastic. Now I use clear silicone. Prop the car on end so the place where you are putting the diaphragm is flat and level till the silicone dries - useually about an hour is good. Then let it dry overnight to completely let the silicone set before operating.
The Walthers are the best option for me. I just wanted to dress up the P1K F3s without spending a lot of money on them. Since acquiring them, I have bought several sets of BLI F7s and PCM F3s which come with factory diaphrams and I wanted to give the P1Ks a similar look. The Walthers diaphrams will accomplish that. Thanks for the suggestions for adhesives. I hadn’t thought of contact cement but it seems like a logical choice although I may get some of the Super Glue Gel as well.
In addition to installing the diaphrams, I want to swap out the factory couplers with KD #33 couplers to allow them to couple more closely. As is, they are way too far apart. My LHS didn’t have the #33s in stock so I am waiting on a Walters order.
jercorbett,
Would you happen to know the Walther’s part number for the diaphrams you are using. A quick search of their site brought up the AL plastic diaphrams, but I want something a little more flexible. I have a herd of F7s and a bunch of HW passenger cars I would like to put diaphrams on. The plastic ones don’t flex enough for my 22 1/2 and 20 1/2" radius curves.
Thanks in advance.
Yes, these are the ones I got. It says the plates are made of vinyl. I had guessed they were metal but I hadn’t looked that close at them. I was more focused on the flexible section and trying to figure out what it was made of to figure out the best adhesive. I picked up some contact glue on the way home and that will get the first shot. If that doesn’t work out, I’m going with the super glue gel.