Kadee assembly questions

I just drop them in the box without doing anything to them. They work well to me. Ken the guy from AR

Clem     Same here! just drop them in seem to wok fine for me too!

 

Stephen from from Down Under      (cTr... Choose the Right)

I agree with the other guys; for O scale you can pretty much use them as they fall out of the package. The sheer mass of O scale dominates friction rather well.

 

Kadee's instructions were written regardless of scale, and with smaller gauges, the mold parting line on the knuckle could stand a little burnishing to prevent the knuckles from hanging up when they meet another coupler head. The burnishing smooths out the sharpness.

 

To do this when I modeled HO, I used the shaft of a small screwdriver and rotated it against the head of the coupler. A few good turns did the trick. Good to use Grease-em powdered graphite. One puff is enough to last a lifetime, by the way.

 

That said, I DO have a Kadee trip pin plier in my toolbox.

 

 

 

http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page237.htm

 

Sometimes the pin is either too high or too low when you take it out of the package. This clever tool allows you to preserve the curvature of the trip pin, while making its radius either larger or smaller, to prevent it from fouling your track or switch points.

 

A pair of needle nose pliers works okay, but not with the grace and efficiency of this particular tool. That said, at about 11 bucks, it's not that pricey, but you're most likely better off spending your money on something more essential. Me? It's just a tool I like to look at now and then and think, "How clever people are, to invent JUST the right tool for a job."

 

 

 

 

Thank you everyone, again the OGR forum is a priceless tool

 

I do have another question.  What should I use for shim stock ? 

I use about anything for shim stock.   Styrene sheets cut to size is probably most stable.

 

Micro-Mark makes precut shims for O scale in at least one thickness.

 

Also, Kadee just recently released "overset" and "underset" couplers.   These fit the same box as the 805s.   The overset has the coupler raised about 1/16 inch on the shank instead of centered.   So it is essentially self-shimmed.   the underset has the coupler lowered on the shank by about the same amount.   The HO guys have had this stuff for years, we finally got some.   Kadee also came out with a "long shank" coupler. 

 

I think the heads on all these new ones are slightly different, but word is they work together just fine.   I have some overset and underset but have not used yet.

Thank you I was at the LHS looking at the new TYPE E Couplers, look really good. I don't know which ones to use on my MTH SD-40, have to wait until I fix the pilots.