KD For a Pennsy E6 Tender...

Mark; don't be afraid to take apart the tender . do it carefully making note of how things were removed,and if necessary you can make some simple drawings to help you recall how it should go.

 Most kadee couplers are mounted on the tender floor and end sill. You will have to drill several holes to to the mounting. usually the holes are then tapped to accept threaded screws, some folks use self tapping screws some folks use nuts on the screws to avoid tapping the holes.  you may have to add a shim under the Kd to get the proper height to mate with other cars .

Most important take your time and you can do a good job of it.

Franky-Ogee

Thanks; that's kind what I was afraid of. Not taking it apart, but I had hoped to be able to mount the Kadee on the truck, just to keep things simpler.

Will take another look at it all soon, and we will see... 

Mark in Oregon

Okay, so here's what I ended up doing.

First off, my hope was to keep all the original parts intact, just in case (for some reason) I want to go back to the "lobster claw" at some future date.

Just so happens I am clean out(!) of spare Kadees, so I used (for now) an old Athearn(?) coupler. I was able to mount it on the coupler "carrier", but it stuck out 'way too far, so I drilled a new hole for the pin that is part of the "carrier":

Here it is attached to this carrier piece:

...and after a few spacers to bring it up to the correct height, here it is:

As you can see, it still sticks out a bit too far, but I think it does look better. I don't feel confident enough to try drilling a 9/16" hole in a metal #905, so I'm going to order a set of KD #806's; being plastic, I should be able to drill a hole pretty much anywhere I need to, and the 806 is a shorter item to boot. I think I got away with drilling the Athearn because the metal is pretty soft...

Again not a perfect solution, but it is workable, and I can put the original back on if I ever need to.

Mark in Oregon

Why can't you drill a metal one?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Why can't you drill a metal one?

Good question. But, are you sure you REALLY want a "9/16" hole"? That is a REALLY big hole! 

Hot Water posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Why can't you drill a metal one?

Good question. But, are you sure you REALLY want a "9/16" hole"? That is a REALLY big hole! 

You're right; it is actually 5/64". BIG difference! 

I suppose I could try to use a 805; it just seems like:

a. It would be easier to go with the plastic 806.

b. I think the metal of a KD 805 is a lot harder stuff than the soft metal of the Athearn coupler I used.

I can always try both, now that I know how the whole project is to be approached...

Mark in Oregon

I haven't run across any metal in model trains I can't drill, so I think this shouldn't be an issue.   I'd much rather have a metal coupler than a plastic one...

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I haven't run across any metal in model trains I can't drill, so I think this shouldn't be an issue.   I'd much rather have a metal coupler than a plastic one...

I'll second that. I generally use numbered drill bits ( #50 or #51 if I recall correctly) for holes that I plan to thread with a 2-56 tap. Drilling through the shank of a metal Kadee coupler is VERY easy. Plus, I do not like the plastic Kadee couplers, as they are prone to bend easily.

The metal shank on a Kadee is actually very easy to drill through. A lot easier if you have a drill press, but a hand drill works too.

Unless you are a 2 railer....there's no reason to ever use a plastic coupler/draft gear box. Go with strength!

If you want to get fancy and close up the gap at the rear of the tender.... I use styrene to plug/fill the gap and the base plate can be screwed to the floor of the tender where no one can see the screws. If you ever want to go back to the claw, just unscrew the Kadee bracket with coupler and re-install your claw.

This is how I do them, and this is the Legacy AC12: The Kadee only screws into the styrene bracket. Then the bracket screws to the floor behind the rear of the shell so there are no exposed screws. The whole coupler assembly can be removed with 2 screws.

 I usually body mount my Kadee's to the tenders floor like Laidoffsock showed in his post. I have mounted a few right to the truck. I remove the stock coupler. The T pin that secures the coupler is close to either a #8 or #10 screw. Can't remember which. I use 1/2" wide brass strips. I drill and tap for 2 56 screws to mount the Kadee. I then figure out how far I need to extend the Kadee beyond the tender. I mark where I need to drill a hole and then tap that for the approximate screw and tighten it down where the stock couplers T pin was. You will need to shim the bracket up off the truck with washers.

 The pic shows one I made up for the front of an 0-8-0 switcher. The piece of stock on the top is not needed. The idea is the same as making one for the rear. On this one I actually soldered 2 pieces of brass together to eliminate the stacking of washers. If you can get a tight fit of the boxes lid to the brass bracket. You can get by with just one screw.

I appreciate all the input. Since I wanted to keep this as "stock" as possible, I went the route of mounting to the original coupler "arm".

I did find a stash of Weaver #700 couplers; although these are plastic, I've used these on some rolling stock (and the KD #806s on my F units) without any problems, so I'm not as "anti-plastic" as some of you. 

In any case, I drilled a 700 and mounted it and here we are now:

And here is the photo I posted earlier of the Athearn coupler:

Although the lighting is different, I hope you can see the improvement.

When I get some metal KDs, I will give one of those a shot as well. I get what you're saying about "metal vs. plastic"; I really do.

Just making do with what I have on hand... 

Mark in Oregon

Another very viable option these days - design and 3d print an adapter. There are a lot of good (and even some free) software options out there that are plenty adequate for basic parts like this. And the turnaround at places like Shapeways and Sculpteo is usually pretty quick.

Here's one I did on my MTH Great Northern a while back:

I posted a detailed thread about the process here.

Here's another one I did recently for an MTH 4-8-4 Greedbrier. Same basic idea as discussed in the S2 thread:

Bonded to the rear step detail part of the tender:

Installed on the tender:

And with the coupler on it:

Nice... 

Mark in Oregon