I did a "distraction" project for a friend this week. Ed Bommer is refinishing and up-detailing a Min-I-Scale Hopper, similar to this one by John Fisher:
Most of these that I have found still have their original trucks and wheelsets (John's does not), and all of those with original wheelsets are uninsulated:
Ed contacted me to see if I had any insulated replacements. Ed pointed out that since these are 17/64s models that the correct wheelset for these is very close to a 36" O-scale wheelset, which is most commonly found on passenger cars. The problem is that the Min-I-Scale truck, which is correctly sized for 17/64s, requires longer axles. I had nothing. As it is, friend and local club member Phil Randall (aka Nortonville Phil) has been digging into quite a few 3-to-2 rail conversions recently, and was able to provide options and pointers on how to insulated otherwise uninsulated wheelsets.
I won't go through every step, but the technique involves first pressing off one wheel from each wheelset (it helps to have an arbor press):
I did have one extra wheelset with a bent axle end, which I included in the process as my first article. The next steps are boring the hole in the wheel slightly larger (helps to have a lathe), covering the section of the axle where the wheel goes with heatshrink tubing (helps to have a heat gun), and carefully twisting the wheel back on:
There was one extra step with these. The axles are shouldered. By design, the wheels are only in gauge when both are up against the shoulder. This presents a problem when attempting to insulate the wheel set. There is more than one way to deal with this, but I decided to cut the shoulder back a bit to provide clearance. For my lathe, this required pressing off the other wheel so it would fit the lathe chuck. With the shoulder cut back, you have to twist the wheel on, not to the shoulder, but until it's in gauge. To keep everything in place, I put a drop of CA on the axle under the heat shrink (and then immediately hit it with the heat gun) and put a drop of low-strength Loctite on the outside of the heat shrink before twisting the wheel back on. The last step is to check that the wheelsets are indeed insulated (helps to have a meter).
I have a lot of these uninsulated wheelsets myself. If I decide to insulate them I will probably spin a back-to-back gauge for wheel installation. The one sold by All Nation is just a little too wide, so one option would be to buy one of theirs and machine it down to size. But they are also easy to make, so either option is good.
Jim
