Best center roller and wheel cleaning tool ever: Wow!!

Lee, that is brilliant! I need to make one of those. That's an interesting looking mandril. Is that the one used for cutoff wheels?

I've been using these made from ScotchBrite for a long time.  They work great for all sorts of polishing and cleaning tasks.  The corners get "rounded" quickly as you work, I just nip them off to speed the process.

 

 

Nice idea Lee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've been using a Dremel with a brush wheel for years on my rollers

 

 

Alex

On rollers, I hold the tool at an angle across the roller, that seems to clean better and solves the problem of the roller just rolling under the wheel.  For wheels, I do what Lee suggests, just hold the other side lightly.

 

You actually CLEAN wheels and pickup rollers?

 

Gerry

 

It's either that, or when they spark and arc and come to a complete stop, throw the engine away.

Brilliant ideas both; Lee and John.

Gotta try that.

 

Rod

Lee, great idea! Thanks Iam making one tomorrow!!

Lee, can you enlighten me with what a "brightboy" eraser is?  Us west coast people might call it something different.  Good idea.  Thanks.

 

TEX

Steve

They are also caller track erassers,  They look like a regular flat ink eraser, not quite as coarse and harder.  Lionel used to sell them seperate but I think they still come with their manitance kit.

Lee, this may have been discussed before, but it's an annual question, for us Christmas layout folks. So thanks for the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z-dmgXzDrI

 

I love 'em,  but they get worm and dirty as you use them.  

There are a number of track-cleaning erasers available, and I have used them for more years than many here have been alive.  You can find one brand or another at virtually any hobby shop that sells trains, IF you're lucky enough to have a local hobby shop near you.  Otherwise, the postage will likely cost you more than the eraser.  

Dremel makes a "Bright Boy" type wheel for your arbor. Been using one for years on tougher jobs. One must be careful though as you can polish a spot too much and make it look out of place.

 

Gandy

Whether you use those or the brightboy way I outlined, you DO have to keep a light touch.  My experience yesterday is that this tool cleans rollers to shiny new in literally one to two seconds.  Heavy use of any cleaner tool is not recommended, b but with this, be particularly sure to start off with a light touch.  I'm not the least worried about wearing out any parts on my locos but only because I am careful with it.

Thank you Lee, I had an old brightboy type eraser and chopped what was left of it up.  It works very well.  

 

I use the "brightboys" type erasers consistently for cleaning old tubular track and rubbing off corrosion on metal pieces.  I never thought to chop it up and attach it to a dremel. The dremel gives it a handle and makes it a more precise tool for details.  Perfect...

 

 

I just take a paper towel with some Naptha on it and lay across the rails. Then run the whole train over it and all the wheels & rollers are clean.

Great idea Lee. 

A few weeks ago, I was at San Diego model RR museum.  A man was using the paper-across-the-track trick, with isopropyl alcohol.  He'd hold locos so wheels would spin on the paper.

I've tried it and tried to make it work.  It does but only after a fashion and it never really worked well compared to the cleaning the way I do it now.  I would classify it as more trick/entertainment than effective: it is particularly ineffective on center rollers which aren't going to turn under power to rub themselves against the cleaning cloth/towel.  Note that is why it works a bit better on HO - where there is no center roller.  

 

I am often amazed: anytime anything is not working right, cleaning the wheels and rollers well - particularly the center rollers, nearly always fixes everything. 

 

 

the paper trick is for the

HO guys, or as my wife

calls them

"little crap trains"

I keep wheels clean, too and this "Birghtboy Dremel tool is often not needed there.

 

What works best for me in all but really the dirtiest situations is to put the train in a soft-cloth cradle upside down and use alligator clips to connect it to track power, then run it at about a scale 50 mph (i.e., not too fast, but not slow).  I then hold Q-tips moistened with iso-alcohol against each powered wheel as it turns - when a Q-tip gets black with dirt I change out to a clean one, and keep cleaning each wheel until a new Q-tip does not turn black against it.  I clean non-powered wheels with Q-tips, turning the wheel by finger.  

 

I only use the Dremel-Brightboy tool on wheels when they are really dirty.  I bought a Vision loco used recently and it had absolutely filthy wheels - covered with some sort of crud.  It hardly ran which is why I got it cheap, i suppose.  I used the tool then, and the wheels ended up looking new when done.

 

In my experience - confirmed by some "experiment" - operating problems are most often the result of the center rollers that are the "dirty contact" problem, not as much the wheels: for one thing there are usually fewer of them and for whatever reason on my locos they get dirty more quickly, and more dirty/caked.

 

I experimented some time back, cleaning only center rollers (but not the wheels) whenever i had a problem, just to see what happened, and that solved 80% or more of all of operating problems I have.  Since then I always clean wheels, too, just to be sure, but I confirmed by doing that that it often is not necessary: its the center rollers that need the most attention.  

 

I use this Brightboy-Dremel tool on all center rollers: I moisten a Q-tip and use it to wet down the roller, then position it under the roller pushing up gently to provide resistance to its turned, then just brush the top of the roller with the spinning wheel (at the Dremel's lowest speed) - the spinning brightboy wheel cleans the roller while turning it slowly against the pressure from the Q-tip below it.  

The photo below shows the dirtiest loco I could find this morning, a BEEP that was on a high shelf and had not been run in a year or more.  It ran before this cleaning, with just a trace of balkiness.  In the photo, the roller on the right has been cleaned with the tool, literally, for only one second of this cleaning - and is as clean as when new.  The one of the left, although clean enough that the loco runs, is dirty you can see.  One more second of work and I cleaned it, too, and I did the wheels with Q-tips as described above (you can see a red alligator clip in place to power them. The loco ran ran "okay" with the dirty rollers - its major problem (as is often the case with dirty pickups and wheels) is that it would sometimes just not start when I tried to power it up but run once given a judge.  But all cleaned up it was a bit faster and smoother at lowest speeds and it started dependably even at low voltages.

 

A warning from experience:  If you have a loco with megne-traction, don't use anything that will create metal dust (like sandpaper or abrasive).  It's tough to remove from the loco traction magnets.

Yeah, I had a friend years ago who took steel wool to the wheels to clean them.  It wasn't pretty!!

I like to clean with less effort.   I spray WD-40 on paper towels and wipe the track.  I leave a film on the track to protect it.   But during the cleaning process I also let the trains run - so the wheels and rollers clean themselves with the WD-40 they pick up from the track [just a lite film is needed, no attempt to soak the rails].   So I don't have to separately clean the rollers and wheels.  

 

I do this no more than twice a year, and have been doing so for five years now, with zero issues.

 

I seems I spend less time and effort with this method.   My layout is in an enclosed drive-under garage in Georgia.   Its a little dusty, but not bad.   Temps fluctuate with the weather but being under and part of the house the temp is moderated.   I can't think of any special circumstance that would affect why my minimal-effort process works for me but would not work elsewhere.   -Ken

I use the q-tip and alcohol method ... works well.

For some comments on WD-40, including that it is non-conductive, see

http://answers.yahoo.com/quest...0071028223548AAklHNo

Thanks for the post on WD-40 RJR, I'll certainly re-post if my track bursts into flames

Actually, there are those of us who like those "little crap trains" as you so eloquently put it.

 

 

I use the Q tip method with Goof Off and then dry the roller or wheel with a paper towel and then do it again with Walthers track cleaner liquid, dry again and done.  I also clean the track with a ScotchBrite pad pulled under my rack cleaner car for about 15- 20 minutes before I put the passenger/freight cars back on the track.  I try not to use Goof Off on the track unless absolutely necessary.   Great project for a poor weather day.

Cleaned up and overhauled my "new" Lionel 628 centercab, which included carving off the built-up black crud with a screwdriver tip, and then lots of Q-tips with alcohol.  Finally got them cleaned up.

 

Don't think this unit had ever been serviced.  The worm gear was dry, and there was a layer of black dust all around and on the motor and frame.  Cleaned it all up and now it runs like a racehorse!