Im attracted to you...
Hello
Recently I made a decision on how Highclere was going to turn up at the Expo. The choice was between having the curved end boards done so I could run something through the station or getting the uncoupling magnets done so I could shunt a few things around the layout. I decided the latter would probably be a more sensible thing to do so I made a start on the uncoupling magnets...
A while ago I picked up some SEEP electromagnet uncoupling coil thingies to use on Highclere but I have since found out that the steel pin wasnt long enough to go through the foam baseboards I have used. The first idea was to replace the steel pin with a longer nail but after knocking the pin out from the uncoupler I soon found out that it wasnt going to work (the coils kinda un-wound themselves a bit!). There was nothing else but to make my own...
Here are the component parts. I used some 6 inch nails which are about 5mm in diameter, some 'repair' washers which I drilled out to a push fit on the nail and also some PCB which I marked out and isolated 2 areas for the connections. Not shown is the wire which is some 0.27mm diameter enamelled copper wire which was cut to 35m lengths. They are 35m because that worked out at just over 12 ohms which is the same resistance as the SEEP ones. The washers and the PCB was then pushed onto the nail leaving about a 10mm gap between the two, I was fortunate that they were a tight fit but I added a bit of glue just in case.
I then soldered one end of the wire to one of the isolated bits of PCB and then wound the wire round the nail using a battery drill (with speed control!) Once I got to the end of the wire it was then soldered to the other isolated section of the PCB while being careful to keep the wire under a bit of tension (otherwise it just uncoils as I found out!) I also found that its better to keep the wire even across the gap by guiding the wire back and forward across.
And there you pretty much have it! In the picture above (from front to back) you have a finished and trimmed magnet, the original SEEP one, and finally one that hasnt been trimmed.
Missy
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