I am starting to lay rail on my new layout and I am having trouble getting the rail joiners to go onto the track. They are too tight to fit on the ends of the track. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
Caldreamer
Touch up the rail ends with a file. Spread the joiners with a small flat bladed screw driver. Both will help
LastspikemikeIf those Atlas joiners come in strips as do the larger Code joiners then the tab at the end of the joiner that you cut, I use spruce cutters rather than rail cutters for this.
The correct tool to cut rail joiner strips is a flush cutting pair of high quality pliers. Cut twice for each joint, close to the joiner with the machined side of the cutters close to the joiner.
Good tools are worth the investment.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
LastspikemikeCorrection. My "spruce cutters" are actually miniature side cutters used in electronics for pre forming components. They are hardened for cutting metal.
Those still are probably not the correct tool. Most miniature cutters are "diagonal" or "offset" in cutting blade alignment. Only a good set of machined first-surface flush cutters will provide a clean non-distorting cut.
They are not cheap.
This is an example of the cut made by those MAC pliers in a piece of 14g copper wire. All the deformation goes to one side, and the other is nearly perfect.
Those pliers cut rail just as clean.
Uh-Oh... I just went to the MAC tools website, and 4 inch, 5 inch, and 6 inch flush cutting pliers have all been discontinued, and the only replacement they have is imported.
Off to check out Snap-On.
Well, the only plier suitable (and a bit big) on the Snap-On website is backordered.
This is a disturbing development. I might need to buy a lifetime supply of good flush cutting pliers.
Off to check out Matco:
The only one Matco offers is even bigger.
Xuron makes a flush cutting rail nippers designed to cut rail. I have two of them, just don't cut any hardened metal with them, or it will damage the cutting surface. Use them for rail only, and you will be fine.
As for the tight rail joiners, Atlas makes the rail joiner sidekick to assist in putting the joiners on the rail. One tool covers O, HO, and N.
Scott
The Atlas code 55 rail joiners come in a bubble pack of 12. They are not strips, but indivual rail joiners. Atlas needs better quality control in making their rail joiners. They should be slip on snugly without this kind of a porblem.
SeeYou190The correct tool to cut rail joiner strips is a flush cutting pair of high quality pliers. Cut twice for each joint, close to the joiner with the machined side of the cutters close to the joiner. Good tools are worth the investment.
I certainly won't dispute your choices, Kevin, but I get good results using a utility knife atop a machinist's block (a less-hard surface will result in a mess). I've also had decent results with a cut-off disc in a motor tool, although some may need a little touch-up.
I also wonder about tools made by reputable companies in the past, who have now shifted production "elsewhere"....some of these products seem to be as good as ever, but some seem to be cheaped-out versions.I recall when much of our locally-made screw production moved off-shore, and the product we got was junk...improperly formed sockets on Robertson screw-heads, and metallurgy not suited to screw-in fasteners - usually 9 or 10 failures in every dozen used.I think this could be attributed to distributors falling for the low costs, and not specifying the need for proper metallurgical standards. Some of these products have since improved, but the prices have, of course, risen, too.I have some inherited tools that still work as well as the day they were made, whether from the 1920s and perhaps at least into the '60s.I'm uncertain if we still get, nowadays, all that many items that are truly worth their cost.
Wayne
doctorwayneI also wonder about tools made by reputable companies in the past, who have now shifted production "elsewhere"....some of these products seem to be as good as ever, but some seem to be cheaped-out versions.
My most disappointing example of this is Starrett.
It used to be that if you bought a Starrett tool, you got top quality, period.
Now they have started putting the Starrett name on all sorts of cheap second-rate import tools. I learned this the hard way.
Weller is another one.
It is very frustrating when I need to replace a tool, and I cannot get one of the same quality that I had.
I have 1" drive Snap-On sockets that are not even made anymore. Snap-On also no longer makes 6 point 3/4" drive chrome sockets. It is quite a shame.
I have a massive collection of top quality professional tools, and I do not have a son-in-law that wants them.
Ladder1 Touch up the rail ends with a file. Spread the joiners with a small flat bladed screw driver. Both will help
This what I do too and I've laid a lot of track. Get some needle files and use the flat on to bevel the bottoms of the rail where the joiners go on.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
What about these tools
https://www.micromark.com/Xuron-Track-Cutter
https://www.micromark.com/Rail-Nipper-Track-Cutter
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I used a variety of joiners on my mostly code 83 Shinohara track. The ME joiners were tiny. I also used some Atlas N joiners. The Shinohara joiners were also very tight to fit. In places out of view I used the larger combo Atlas 83/100 joiners. Those were almost not quite snug enough.
I formed a joiner insertion tool using an old X-acto #11 blade. Using a cutoff wheel I knocked off most of the sharp edge. Then I contoured part of the blade to look like the shape of the base of the rail.
I could slide the joiner onto this "finger" and it would spread the joiner slightly. Rotate the joiner 180° and push it on the tool again. There was a small "stop notch" which prevented the joiner from pushing too far on to the tool.
With the joiner pressed onto the tool I could then push the open end of the joiner onto the rail end. Pulling the tool away left the joiner in place.
I never took a photo of the tool. Maybe I'll get around to it later. Anybody remember the "injector" type razors? It was kind of inspired by those.
I have several very fine mill files for dressing the cut ends of the rail. Even the factory cut ends need a little dressing.
This is the Walthers/Shinohara joiner. They are individually formed not on a strip like the Atlas ones.
Shinohara_Code-83 by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed