Kadee Magnets

Big Steel

New Member
I was wondering if it is possible to use somthing other than Kadee magnets for my two yards. I visited a club here and they told me they use built up magnets as supposedly it was cheaper. I tried this with no success. I'm thinking I may have missed the point on what they meant by built up magnets?

Any info would be nice. Hoping to save a few bucks.
 
What a good question,

I use many "over the tie" Kadee magnetic delay uncoupler ramps on my layout. They fit to perfection, so I don't know if anything you could find at a hardware store would have the same tolerence. I suppose you could mount any kind of magnet under the ties, if it was strong enough.

For saving money. I knew of a guy who scored them and broken them in half, two ramps for the price of one.

I also imagine you could find them cheaper online. If you could get a website store to include them with a larger order.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
A pointed bamboo skewer is cheaper. You can buy about 1,000 of them for the price of one magnet... ;) :D

How are you using the magnets in your yard(s)? Strategic placement goes a long way to reducing the number required, but may sacrifice more prototypical operating...

But I have (or intend) to cut off the "air hose glad hand" and uncouple by hand whenever (and where ever) needed.

Andrew
 

Big Steel

New Member
More strategic with some random ones. My yards are of decent size will probly need some where around 20+ magnets. In the past month I have spent close to 1,200 dollars.sign1

So as you can imagine I should probly start cutting as many corners as I can.
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
Were they building their own electromagnets, or permanent ones?

If you're building a permanent magnet, you'll need a plate to spread the magnetic field out a bit... if your magnetic surface is too small it won't pull the trip pins apart. I've wondered if you couldn't use the small, round rare-earth magnets that you can get at tool stores.

I remember reading an article in MR years ago about building your own electromagnetic uncoupler... you needed a coil of wire between two plates, which was mounted below the layout, but the top edge of the plates was set into the ties like guard rails.
 

Torpedo

Member
EngineerKyle said:
I have a small hump yard with four sidings. At first I thought I would need four magnets. Thanks to the grade, I get by with one at the throat of the yard and route the appropriate switches before uncoupling.

Here is a short vid showing the operation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1701364877849667022&hl=nen
Oh man, with the title you have on that video, I wonder how long it will be before someone flags it as "inappropriate" without even watching it.

sign1sign1 sign1
 

bigsteel

Call me Mr.Tinkertrain
whats up with this?

:confused: now whats going on here...do i smell IMPERSONATION or (in the words of my daughter) like your totally going to have to change your name,like thats not even cool!like go ,just change...NOW!!.what ever!

sign1 sign1 sign1 nice choice of names Big Steel VERY original. HE HE HE.:rolleyes:

P.S just kidding
 
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