Thought on breaking in

[Tom L]

I sometimes lightly go over the edges of the  gear teeth with 1500 grit sandpaper. The objective being to take off any flash and slightly bevel the edges. My theory being that doing so is a “acceleration” of the breaking in or out process, gear wise.  I have found this to loosen the trucks up and slightly decrease noise. It’s pretty subtle though.

As an experiment on a particularly noisy RS-1, I got pretty aggressive, and beveled them quite a bit. It did help make it quieter, but the bigger culprit in this case, was the alignment between the worm gear and the main gear.

Tom L
Wellington CO

[Mark W]

Make sure to use your CG N Scale Assembly Trays for part management!   


https://i.imgur.com/OTKCgOZ.jpg

[NorsemanJack]

Yep.  Without that tray there would be no way of knowing how to put that thing back together....   

[peteski]

Yep.  Without that tray there would be no way of knowing how to put that thing back together....   

I don't need no stinkin' trays!  Real men don't use those!   

[wazzou]

I happen to think it's a useful product @Mark W and if I were in taking apart Lokie mode, I'd use it.

[peteski]

I happen to think it's a useful product @Mark W and if I were in taking apart Lokie mode, I'd use it.

I agree - I was joking.

[nkalanaga]

Even if you don't need it to remember how to put the thing back together, it looks like a good way to keep from losing a part.  Even the experts run that risk.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Well, yeah, I always degrease a new locomotive, then relube with Labelle*.

* I once was given a thimble full of sperm wale oil by someone that had legal access to it (from a wale that washed up on the beach).  I cleaned one of my locomotives, lubed with labelle, ran it around for a while to warm up, and then measured the current draw.  I then recleaned it, oiled with the sperm wale oil, and retried the run.  The run with the sperm oil drew 10% less current to run at the same speed.

[Iain]

Well, what else was I going to do with it?  I didn't have enough to put in my transmission, and we'd already burned some in an oil lamp.  I did oil some teak with some.

[peteski]

Well, what else was I going to do with it?  I didn't have enough to put in my transmission, and we'd already burned some in an oil lamp.  I did oil some teak with some.

I heard that whale blubber makes excellent skin moisturizer. 

[AKNscale]

I just break them in by running them.

[NorsemanJack]

I only run Kato.  They are precision machines, so there is no "break in."  We're not in the sixties anymore folks.....

[AKNscale]

This sounds like the service director I talked to the last time I bought a new car, lol. So wrong and he didn’t even know it...

[woodone]

YOU CAN’T WEAR A GEAR IN ! You can only wear it out!

[NorsemanJack]

This sounds like the service director I talked to the last time I bought a new car, lol. So wrong and he didn’t even know it...

This is a really funny comparison.  An automobile with internal combustion engine, liquid cooled, various pumps, many roller bearings, automatic transmission/transaxle, many machined metal parts, etc. to a DC motor driving an extremely simple "drivetrain" comprised mostly of molded synthetic components?