I use an X-Acto knife with a fine blade, for picking up the springs. The assembly jig is helpful in some cases. But does not work with their snap together coupler boxes. mg: Boxcab E50
A few tricks I developed for 1015's: Leave the bottom half of the draft gear box on the sprue for assembly. Much easier to hold on to. I use a tweezers to pick up a spring from one end with half the spring hanging off the end of the tweezers. Have the tweezers holding on the top of the spring. In other words, the bottom half of the tweezers is inside the spring and the top half is on top of the spring. Push loose end against the post and compress enough to get the other end of the spring to drop into the slot. Carefully withdraw tweezers. Snap on lid and cut off assembled coupler from sprue. I just did a bulk pack last week and never lost a spring.
You simply slide the blade gently between two coils. The spring pressure holds it on the knife. It doesn't permanently distort the spring. Boxcab E50
Yep, X-acto #11 blade works great. Just slide the tip between coils at one end of the spring and insert the other end of the spring into the coupler, then gently compress the spring with the blade. When I find that the blade end does not drop into place, I use a pair of tweezers (one tine on each side of the knife blade) to guide the spring down into place and slide it off the blade. I use MTL's assembly fixture and push the knuckle assembly against the fixture while inserting the spring. This maximizes the room for the spring. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty quick work. I can now put together 10 pair of 1015s in about an hour without losing a spring.
As has been said above - use an exacto type knife. The screwdriver is sipmly too wide and stretches the spring rendering it useless. Personally, I prefer the OLFA designers knife as it has a smaller blade that has less of an acute angle than a No.11 blade. Also, I modified the assembly jig to accept 1015's. The jig I have is fairly old and made for 1025's. 1015's are different in a few ways to the 1025's and you need to cut a groove for the trip pin to hang freely. When putting the spring in have the knife about three turns in on one end and slip the long end in first. Sometimes the spring will stay in place when you slip the knife out. Otherwise, when using the jig I hold the spring in place with whatever is at hand (mini BBQ skewer, jeweller's screwdriver, etc) whilst removing the knife blade from the spring. When doing them without the jig I use a finger to help the spring into place. Trial and error - you're in the trial stage. Maybe a home-made jig might do you better? A piece of wood with a groove chiselled into it the width of the coupler box and deep enough to hold the coupler box securely. Drill a hole at one end for the trip pin to hang in and tap in a track pin for putting the centre post over.
NOW you tell me!! And all these years I've been using that jig to assemble the snap-together couplers!! Guess I was too dumb to know any different!! LOL Actually, I never considered it. It was a coupler assembly jig from MT (or Kadee!) so I used it to assemble couplers!! Never did like the heat-weld kits so I use the snap-together kits. Who'da thunk it? LOL Darrell, quiet...for now
First, use an old soldering iton to weld the boxes together. No snap fit. I use the toothpick to pick up the spring, then transfer it to the slot while it is held on the assembly jig. The spring compresses without getting bent out of shape (nor do it, for that matter)
Thanks. I just assembled four 1015s and the casualty count for the springs this time was just one...I actually tried the tweezer with that one and stretched it out of shape The X-acto worked, my problem last time was that I used a very sharp #2 blade. I don't have a #11, but I do have some #19s, which worked much better. But no springs sent towards low Earth orbit
Sorry, I didn't quite get that. Where do I put the grease/goo again? Are you trying to settle out of court now? :laugh::laugh::laugh: I'll have to talk to my lawyer first,... (Thanks Joe, I'll take you up on the offer! :teeth
I have used the assembly jig for converting 50 Marklin Z gauge wagons to MTL couplers without problems, and also recently have used it to convert some N gauge wagons to MTL "snap" box couplers also without problems. I am too much of a scrooge to pay for the privilege of have someone else assemble my couplers, i would rather but more coupler kits.
Since you have now gone to the dark side of couplers- a tip---- Go to A.C. Moore or Michaels and pick up a spool of copper wire for beading crafts. They come in various gauges down to 36 gauge (as far as what I saw. Slide spring onto a piece of wire and guide it in with the said No. 11 knife. Wire works well to unclog air brush tips, too. Get the largest one that will fit through the hole.
I use a gob of spit on the spring and put it in place with the edge of an exacto knife.The spit dries up and I can track stolen rolling stock by DNA.:thumbs_up:
Thanks for the tip, Joe! I always have trouble assembling 1111's.... I have the MT coupler tweezers (sorry, Joe), but find them mostly in the tool drawer. I use cross-locking tweezers to hold the box & the 2 halves of the coupler in place while I do the #11 blade trick to maneuver the spring in place. I place the lid on, and gently slide the tweezers out, and snap it closed at the same time. Works like a charm.
Oh cool! Thanks! My sister does beading crafts as a hobby and side business. I can just ask her for some excess wire...
