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 Posted - February 29 2024 : 8:07:57 PM
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My LOTW is this AB set of Stewart/Kato F7s. A friend of mine who grew up in D&RGW territory gave them to me some years ago. They were on my mind today, because I used them a few days ago, and they made a clicking sound that means split axles. Today, I fixed the axles with metal ferrules to squeeze the cracked plastic back together on the inner metal half axles.
The axle is the usual hollow plastic sleeve with a gear in the middle and a metal wheel on each end with a metal half-axle that presses into the plastic sleeve. Splitting is not unusual on this design. The outside diameter of the plastic axle is 3mm. To get metal tubing with that inside diameter would have been bothersome and expensive. After pondering it for some time, I figured out a way with things I already had.
Atlas snap switches come with some 3/32" bolts and nuts. I drilled out the nut with a 3/32" drill bit which is about 2.8mm. I filed out the hole to a tight press fit with a rat tail file and beveled the ends of the hole with a countersinking bit. With the drilled out nut pressed onto the axle, the crack closed, and the engine is its old smooth, quiet self.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - February 29 2024 : 8:54:30 PM
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Nice looking brace of engines. And that’s some creative problem solving there; I’ll have to remember that!
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - February 29 2024 : 11:26:08 PM
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| Nice engines and layout to display D&RGW as they go well together. Your solution was really thinking outside the box!
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Posted - March 03 2024 : 12:37:51 AM
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