Link and Pin Etching?

[narrowminded]

Does anybody know of a source for link and pin couplers?  .010" or so?  I imagine an etching would do and absent existing supply, how about an etching vendor?  That might be best anyway.

[garethashenden]

Do they have to be etched? Would the MTL plastic ones be ok? https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?_route_=cwe-link-amp-pin-style-couplers-2-pr-2006-00102060&search=001%2002%20060&description=true

[hminky]

The Microtrains product really isn't a LinknPin but more or less just a drawbar to join the cars together.

The product is basically non-functional.

Panamint sells LnPs on Shapeways.



https://www.shapeways.com/product/V6F64QDRL/a09-n-nn3-link-and-pin-couplers-cast-iron-x48?optionId=43530417

If you are looking for the links and pins themselves, have no idea if anyone has ever made them. A rather impractical idea.

Harold

[Philip H]

I have seen etchings from the UK that come close but I'll be darned if I know where that link is right now.

[babbo_enzo]

I have seen etchings from the UK that come close but I'll be darned if I know where that link is right now.

Try this 2mm Scale Association...:
http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/shops.php?shop_num=2

[narrowminded]

The Microtrains product really isn't a LinknPin but more or less just a drawbar to join the cars together.

The product is basically non-functional.

Panamint sells LnPs on Shapeways.

If you are looking for the links and pins themselves, have no idea if anyone has ever made them. A rather impractical idea.

Harold

I have made them from .010" wire by hand for small quantities but for any volume I was considering a tool for winding the links but it occurred to me that this just might be a place for an etch.  I also feel like I've seen such a thing in my travels but maybe that was just wishful thinking.   

[narrowminded]

Try this 2mm Scale Association...:
http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/shops.php?shop_num=2

They have a lot of very neat parts but I can't find link and pin.  

I have looked quickly at Panamint's site as I have used their coupling boxes and my dimensions are similar enough that anything that works in theirs should work in mine, but they had nothing evident.  Maybe I should contact them.

[garethashenden]

They have a lot of very neat parts but I can't find link and pin.  

I have looked quickly at Panamint's site as I have used their coupling boxes and my dimensions are similar enough that anything that works in theirs should work in mine, but they had nothing evident.  Maybe I should contact them.

There aren’t any link and pin couplers there, but there are some etched couplers. How prototypical do you want to be?

[randgust]

OK, I've done it just to see if it could be done.

I have link pockets that I made for my Climax A's, three position.  "most" of them operated with link and pin instead of knuckles.

I took three of the N Scale Kits 25' log buggies and made link 'boxes' out of 1/16" square brass tube, drilled and mounted for pockets.

I made links out of bent-up and lightly soldered .010 brass wire.    Pins were made out of .015 wire with a tiny flattened spot on the top.

Operationally, it's worked just fine, no problems.   Worked well enough I did a set of my V&T ore cars the same way, as I supply a link pocket with those kits as well.   Really looks the part.  Couples unbelievably close and prototypical.




But when it's time to couple them up, OMG.  You need two sets of tweezers and a Quaalude.   But they do look great.   And, if you remember the Atlas N Forum many years ago, I announced a functional electromagnetic uncoupler for N scale link and pins (using iron wire) on April 1.

I have resin-molded single pockets as done on the V&T cars and 3-position pockets as on the Climaxes, if anybody wants them as separate parts to experiment with, PM me.   

Seeing as how I have had these cars at Altoona shows, that's where you may have seen them in your travels.

I've also put a set of the MT links on a string of log cars, and they are just too stiff vertically.  You need more flexibility, the design is just a hair too tight, enlarging the link hole a hair helps a bit.

[narrowminded]

There aren’t any link and pin couplers there, but there are some etched couplers. How prototypical do you want to be?

When you say couplers, do you mean the links?  The "rings"?  That's the hardest part.  I even thought some of the ship modellers might have something that would work.  I'm thinking a wire cross section of .010" to .015" would be ideal.  I've made some out of .010" SS wire that look good.

I do want them fairly prototypical.  They will be used on these Nn3 tippers and other types of mine cars.

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[Englewood]

I have seen etchings from the UK that come close but I'll be darned if I know where that link is right now.

I nominate this reply for Pun of the Year!

[nkalanaga]

Model or jewelry chain should work for the links, if they are flattened with a small pair of pliers.  Most chain links are round, and flattening them would be tedious, but could be done.  You'd have to cut every other link to get them apart, so buy at least twice as much as you think you need.

The pins would be more difficult.  Maybe a piece of small wire, with plastic insulation, strip all but the top, so the insulation forms the "handle" of the pin?

I have a set of link-and-pin couplers on pair of MOW machines, but those are just a loop of #30 wire, with pins made from L-shaped pieces of the same wire.  Looks fine on a 1974 MOW crew, but not so good for the 1870s.

[narrowminded]

I may have come up with my answer.  "If you want it done right, do it yourself."  

Thanks everybody but I think the answer was staring me in the face.  I'll know soon.

[Chris333]

Excuse the dust, but this is what I did in HOn30:

[narrowminded]

I still want to do the standard links if at all possible.  I've already bent a few up by hand and assembled them with tweezers and they work nice.  Plenty of motion for really tight radius turns and free moving vertically allowing irregular track, turnouts, etc to be navigated without one car effecting the next, causing derailments.  That should really help when I print the shortened ones.

A tool made specifically for assembling those pins will be warranted and is in mind as I work on the design.  My plan is to assemble the train on the bench and have semi-permanent trains joined together.  What I did that seems to work is to put a drop of white glue on the pin projecting out the bottom.  Enough to foul it and keep it together but removable anytime desired.  These Nn3 cars with four wheel chassis are actually pretty easy to deal with once joined.  Just stretch them out and the most minor jockeying has them placed.  I'm still working on the rest of it but I'm pretty happy with what I've managed this far.