They should make a tool...

...that makes it easy to pop off and hang on to bolster pins. Im picturing somthing with a slotand you can slip it in under the head and over wheelsets, and then you sqeeze a part and it covers or grabs the head and then you can pull the whole thing off. Then you could set a pin in the slot and scueeze and them reverse the whole thing. Someday when a money tree starts dropping its leaves, I will swap out all my trucks, but I am dreading the idea of using the nippers and screwdriver to do it.

Kelley, is actually quite easy to use a cutter and wedge it under the pin without making contact with the post and wiggle it free. To reinstaled the pin, I use a round toothpick. It fits into the hole of the bolster pin perfectly and wont fall off.

Something like this Kelly?

I was thinking more like some kind of shear things with somthing that slides.. I used to have this thing that was used to trim animals nails with. I was thinking a piece of metal ith a slot or keyhole you slip the pin through and then somthing that closes...perhaps somthing like nippers but with a hole the size of the pin drilled, that would be the cheap and easy way to make a tool.

I found this tool... "Screw Pliers". It's perfect. I can pull the bolster pins without having to remove the wheel sets.

Kelly... That would work good for removing the pin, but the tool I designed above could also hold the pin for re-insertion. I'll see what I can come up with like you described.

Joe

Zcratchman_Joe wrote: Something like this Kelly?

Several months ago I made a prototype tool that looks almost exactly like this. Unfortunately it doesn't work. The problem is that the space between the pin and the surface of the truck bolster is so slim that the claws need to be incredibly thin. Thin = weak. I've even tried hardened steel. Compounding this is the fact that some pins require a surprising amount of force to pull. Some slip out fine; others wind up bending or breaking the edges of the claws. Or, if the claws are just gripping the edges of the pin, the pin gets ruined.

So, if you're able to make this work, more power to you.

The problem is that the space between the pin and the surface of the truck bolster is so slim that the claws need to be incredibly thin. Thin = weak.

"Thin" in this case also means to an extent, sharp, adding the chance of going in to far and cutting into the pin. I suppose a simple adjustment could be added to prevent this, however that still leaves the problem of "thin = weak" (and surprisingly, even with hardened steel).

David, it's funny you should pipe in on this. As I was wasting the 5 minutes I took to draw the picture, I was thinking all along that this will give DKS an idea to go ahead and design/build one that actually works well. Sounds like you were ahead of all of us. It's a shame it didn't work out. Perhaps if you (we) give up on the idea of sliding under the pin, and instead grasping it in the fashion of the rusted screw pliers that Alex talked about, but still adding a way to re-insert the pin with the same tool (using the toothpick method)? Then again, just the pliers type might do, in which case Alex's find of the $30.00, Engineer Inc., PZ-57 Screw Pliers should do nicely.

Joe

Once I found that pulling the pin itself was pretty much futile (that is, without possibly damaging it, as the pliers might do), I went in a totally different direction and developed a tool that pulls the pin and the truck together. This proved to be a far more practical approach, although the parts on the business end are still pretty darned small, not to mention very precisely shaped.

I completed a functional prototype tool that actually works. So, why am I not marketing it? Cost to manufacture a custom, low-volume, complex precision tool will drive the MSRP up unreasonably high. I don't think there will be many Z Scalers willing to fork over $100 just to pull their truck pins.

And, lest anyone think I'm blowing smoke, here's a photo of the prototype tool. The Z-shaped rod is spring-loaded and fits into the hole in the pin; the two L-shaped rods slip under the truck bolster; and the two straight rods are actuated by a plunger to press against the chassis and yank the truck off, with the pin safely held in place on the truck.

Have you thought about piano wire? you can get it at most hobby shops, in various thickness's.
I have used it on R.C. airplanes. I'ts very hard and strong. You can bend it, and grind it to
a flat edge. It might work for you. Just a thought. Good luck.

KIN477 wrote: Have you thought about piano wire? you can get it at most hobby shops, in various thickness's.
I have used it on R.C. airplanes. I'ts very hard and strong. You can bend it, and grind it to
a flat edge. It might work for you. Just a thought. Good luck.

That's exactly what I used to make the prototype tool. The problem is not so much in designing a tool that works, it's in designing a tool that can be mass-produced economically.

This device is very cumbersome looking and after doing the pin removal with a screw driver for many years I would never invest in such a tool. I have a broken round file that I cut the end off of with a dremel cutting disk that fits into the pins just fine and so it is easy to insert them. I have one for Z and one for N. flat blade screw driver with a sharpened blade slides into the area under the cross bare on the truck and I twist it gently to release the existing pin and by keeping my finger on the pin as I hold the truck it comes out in my hand rather than flying out and being swallowed by the carpet monster. I also use a jewellers apron when doing work at my bench that has magnets in the bottom hem and they connect with metal underside of my desk creating a pocket to contain any parts that fall It does not take brute force but just a gentle hand. I do this job frequently as I prefer body mount couplers so I usually remove the truck from the car,then remove the coupler from the truck and then install a 905 on the body and then remount the truck on the car, set the trip pin height and I am ready to rock and roll. It is a personal choice as I find the cars can be pushed back through Rokuhan switches when the trucks are free of the coupler pressure imposed when pushing a sting of cars with talgo trucks. (talgo truck = truck with coupler pocket attached to it. all my trucks have metal wheel sets, FVM or WDW operating is so much more fun when you are not spending allot of time putting stuff back on the track or picking up the pieces from the floor. just this man's opinion.

Oh yea the wire thing.. When people used to lock their keys in the car, and they were trying to use a coathanger for a slim jim, I used to take the coathanger, make a loop on one end with my leatherman, and take a piece of either 55o parachute cord or a bootlace, and make a noose. We would get a window cracked slip it through the weather stripping and I would slip the noose around the pull knob of the door lock. The knot on the cord was against the loop in the wire, and I would push the loop down while pulling the string tightening the noose. when I got it tight enough I would pull the hanger wire and both strings at the same time and ..Pop the knob goes up.
Please dont try this use this for carjacking..I usually do did this after the MPS screwed up the inside of sombodys door while trying to use a slim jim for a half an hour. took me 5 minutes to make and use.
Anyway a loop of nylon line and a steel or copper tube might work too. picture those things animal control used to grab dogs with. Nylon line ran through a tube, looped back through and through a wooden bead that you would pull.This can pull the pins but not put them on.