I have a bunch of cars to BM and tried the MTL tap on a metal boxcar frame and it seems to have stripped the tap, Any options or opinions? I'm sure its deep in a thread somewhere.
I have body mounted on all the cars that I own that I could figure out how to do. That said I still have a few left that haven't been converted (yet). I have converted about 300 cars so far. I have never heard of anyone "stripping" a tap. The train car frame material is so much softer than the tap that it will stick to the tap. When this happens it will look like all the threads on the tap are gone and sometimes the metal from the frame can be hard to remove from the tap without a small screwdriver or other tool. I have broken so many taps than I can't remember them all. Most of the time and if you are lucky you can remove the broken piece with some type of pliers. The best plan is to have spare taps and drills available (in multiples like about four of the size you will need). Don't try to work too fast. The Micro-Trains and other tap brands such as the Walthers look just about the same but the Micro-Trains taps will last much longer. I recommend only hand tools (no power) on these Zamac (or Zinc alloy) frames. Best of Luck Mark
Get another tap, either M-T or a DuBro one. And, get some oil. You need to lube the tap while using it. A drop of Labelle oil will work fine. Twist the tab slowly in and out a couple of times to clean out shavings. Clean off the oil and mount the coupler. It's pretty simple, but takes a little practice. The M-T cars are pre drilled, so you won't have to worry about that..
And now, for a little blasphemy... I just glue the couplers on with Walthers Goo. It's plenty strong enough for my needs on operating nights (most trains are less than ten cars long). You do need to ensure that you don't clog the innards of the coupler box with too much Goo. A little dab'll do ya.
I do the same. I used Elmer's White at first and if that breaks I use Gorilla Superglue. Now I don't even bother with Elmer's and go straight to superglue. I shim it with a piece of clear plastic to the correct height. And did I say I use the same coupler that just snip off the truck? Then I back up the whole train through a couple of hand-built turnouts at 150 scale MPH without a hitch.
Man, I'm almost finished tapping and putting Micro-trains #1027 couplers on almost 70 MTL boxcars (yesterday and today). Thank goodness for Optivisors. Hmm... I wish Kiz would order more termites than couplers...
Seventy cars in two days?! That's kind of like what I do, two cars in seventy days.... Im impressed. Did I mention I'm slow? Otto K.
I exaggerated. It was only 66 cars. But I also tapped and installed 60 pairs of Micro-Trains 1025 couplers Monday-Wednesday of this week. Man, my fingers hurt from all that tapping. Hmm... Kiz gets mad at me when I wiretap his phone
Well, if that's the case, I must do real quality work...LOL Either that or I'm just too dang slow... Otto
