To Joe Fermani - It worked!!! I beveled the drivers of my T1 as you suggested. It now runs through my Atlas 0-72 switches without shorting out. Thanks for this great tip!!!! The engine is back in action after sitting under the layout for a couple of years.
I didn't bother to take the engine apart as you suggested. I put it upside down in a foam cradle and ran the engine using alligator clips to power the engine from a transformer. The engine will run upside down in conventional mode without the tender attached. I used a dremel with a carbide bit to bevel the drivers while the engine was running in the cradle.
I carefully cleaned all the the very small metal shavings from the underside of the engine using a soft paint brush and a magnet. This seems to have worked OK. At least the engine doesn't have any issues with the shavings that I can see.
I first tried beveling the drivers using a Dremel grinding stone. The steel drivers ground down the stone and dust went everywhere. This is not the way to do it.
A friend suggested using a carbide grinding bit for steel. I found a Dremel number 9901 tungsten carbide cutter at the Home Depot. It made short work of cutting the bevel. The 9901 cost about $10 but it was worth it.
Thanks again Joe for this great tip on how to solve the T1 driver shorting problem
Best wishes, Joe Barker
Joe, you sure dodged a bullet by doing it the way you did. As the microscopic metal particles swirled around the cradle, how many of them went into either the motor (highly magnetic) or running gear (well greased bearings)? And Joe Fermani, have you ever seen anybody actually chuck up one of these drivers in a lathe? Where on the driver did they let the chuck dogs attach themselves? I do remember a thread on this forum from a member who would re-shape your 3 rail drivers into scale size.
Long ago in my machine shop days, I remember seeing an internally expanding spindle being used on some kind of wheel. The work wasn't being done with a tool bit. It was being ground into shape, similar to what you guys are doing. By using the spindle, there was minimal runout. Jeez, I can imagine my little Bridgeport #3 speed lathe sitting on a bench in the corner of my work space...............Wishful thinking.
