Keep those metal filings out of your sound speakers.

[cwclark]

 

Hi guys,

      As surely as Murphy is alive and well, the trains will run great until there is a large crowd in the room and without fail, there's always that one train that it's performance seems to go south while everyone is watching.  This happened to me during the model railroad open house a few weeks ago.

      While running a west bound freight, my consisted Blueline Sound BLI C30-7 locomotive's volume became scratchy and then went to a faint din and then there was no sound at all. To save myself more embarrassment, I pulled the consist onto a siding, replaced it with another consist, and a buddy of mine pulled the shell and started looking into the problem. There were no loose wires and everything seemed to be in tact,  just no sound! We were both stumped by the sound (or lack of sound ) problem.

    The next day, I sat down and inspected the locomotive with a magnifying glass and once I removed the gas tank cover where the speakers were located, I noticed very small pieces of metal filings stuck  to the speaker diaphrams. The combination of the very strong speaker magnets and the speakers being so close to the track caused the speakers to pick up metal filings that inadvertently fell between the rails that weren't picked up by the vacuum cleaner when finishing up some previous track work. The metal filings that were caught in the speaker prevented the speaker from emmiting the sound harmonics and stopped all sound from coming out of the speaker.

     There is a screen between the speaker diaphram housing and the gas tank cover, but the mesh  seemed to be too large to catch many of the smaller metal filings that get between the rails. I pondered with the problem until that dim light bulb in my head lit up like a neon sign.  Nylon hosery is the answer!  So without further ado, this is what I did to protect the speaker diaphrams from a future attack by the metal filings.  I hope this will help you keep your sound equipment from doing what mine did to me.

 

First, I removed the gas tank speaker housing. (If you look closely, you can see some of the metal filings drawn into the speaker by the speaker magnets.

Next, I gingerly removed the metal shavings from the speaker diaphram with a pair of tweezers. (One piece at a time.) The speaker magnet held them in so tightly that brushing them away wasn't an option. 

 My lovely wife came through with an old nylon panty sock that I eventually used to protect the speaker diaphrams.

I then measured the nylon with a scale ruler to fit inside the speaker cover and cut it with a pair of scissors to fit

The final step was to daub in some silicone caulk to form a seal around the speakers, work the piece of nylon hose into the corners of the speaker housing into the wet silicone caulk and then replace the speaker cover once the silicone caulk dried.. Here's a picture of the cover with the piece of nylon hosery in place.

So far so good. It's been a month since the modification and the sound from the locomotive is great and is as loud as ever.....chuck 

 

 

 

 

 

[cudaken]

 Been there and done that. In my case I was using air nipples to cut some steel. The shavings where cresting moon shape so no luck pulling them out with a magnet. I like my Blue Lines 6000's but, they will suck up spikes with there down ward facing speakers. I will add they are a pain to take a part! I rather field strip my M1 A than a 6000.

                 Cuda Ken

[Texas Zepher]

Another solution is to pick up the iron filings before the trains run.    Attach strong magnets to the bottoms of several cars that frequent the layout.  Put them as low as possible without touching the surface of the track.  It works much like dragging a Masonite pad to clean the track.  Just don't forget to clean the iron filings off it from time to time.

Such a car or two can be pushed around the layout before an operating session, like on the front of a cleaning train. 

[RailfanS]

Thanks for the tip,

When / If I intall sound in my Kato AC4400CW I'll be sure to do this.

Jamie

[cwclark]

davidmbedard

 This is why I refuse to install speakers into fuel tanks.  An easy way to remove the filings is to use some tape.

David B

I'll try the tape thingy next time. About the speakers in the fuel tank...that's the way they build them in the Blueline BLI Diesel locomotives....chuck

[tomikawaTT]

Filings are bad news for old-fashioned open frame motors, too.  My solution is to take my ShiKi60 class four truck well flat and slap a couple of Kadee uncoupler magnets to the underside of the suspended frame.  They clear the rails by about .02 inch when being pushed by one of my teakettle tank locos.

Those magnets have sucked loose spikes out from under soldered frogs, and always pick up a surprising amount of magnetic junk.  Haven't lifted any deliberately-driven spikes yet, but I don't doubt that they've tried.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[AntonioFP45]

 CWClark,

 Great tip and tutorial! Thanks for sharing this.  Excellent for those of us that are newbs in DCC Sound installations.

[MisterBeasley]

Good suggestions from everyone.  Thanks.  This is a problem I've never even thought about, but it's likely that I do have metal shavings somewhere on my layout.