Roundhouse Machine Screw Hole Help

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Trucklover

Trucklover

BNSF SD70MAC's
Im hoping someone can help me out here, i just got 14 Roundhouse 5-bay Rapid Discharge Hoppers lettered for CSDU and CSDPU, and they all have metal weight frames that "lock" into the under body of the cars. This is where the holes are drilled out on both sides for mounting the trucks and the coupler covers on, only there not nearly deep enough and i can only get the screw to turn like once around in the holes before they stop dead and will not turn anymore.

The screws they come with are not very long to begin with, 5mm long flatheads. Should i get new screws for each of these? How can i fix this problem? Am i going to have to drill out each of these holes? If so, whats the best way to do this? Tap and dye? What size whole should i drill them out to if i have to do this? Again its a metal frame these wholes are in, so if i have to re-drill/extend the holes, i would have to have to go through metal.....

Any help is appreciated, and thanks in advance.
 
Here is a pic of what im talking about, as you can see, this is as far as the screw will go into the whole for the coupler mounting hatch, and its the same for the truck mounting hole as well. I was only able to turn it at the most one full rotation in the hole before it would not turn anymore, even with force.....

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**On second look, it appears the screw is crooked in the coupler mounting whole, i took it out and straightened it out, but it still does not turn any further then it did before, and the truck mounting hole will will not go in straight at all, it wants to sit in there crooked :mad: grrrrr i seem to have problems with every single rounhouse kit ive ever built, yet i still keep buying more of them :eek:
 
Are the screws self tapping ones ?
I,d drill through the metal frames, to make sure that they were not bottoming out in the frames. You,ll need to drill using a drill that just fits the threaded hole,any bigger and you,ll lose the thread you,ve got already.
Ron
 


Those screws look too big. Do you have shorter self-tapping screws you can use? Ron also has a point. Make sure you check the holes for flash. Roundhouse is famous for flash on all their metal parts.
 
that screw looks like corse thread? Hard to tell but most are fine thread unless its self tapping. best advice would be to drill and tap for a 2-56 screw. you can get real short lengths so that the screw wont stick thru the frame. those frames drill and tap very easy

Trent
 
T'was me I'd drill and tap the holes for 2-56 machine screws ,this way its also much simpler if you need to do any coupler adjustments......don't even fool around with those crap screws in the kit. pitch'em in your junk box.
 
Guys, thanks for all your help, you guys were right, they all self taping crap sheet metal screws, just junk lol

I went to the LHS today and picked up a 2-56 Tap and a packet of 2-56 x 1/4" and 1/8" screws. There were only 5 in each package and they were $2.99 per package, so i only got one of each just to try them out and see how they worked lol The dang Tap was $7.49 and the screws were $2.99 a package :mad: lol

I called my grandpa when i was at the LHS and asked him if he had something i could use the Tap with to turn it, of coarse he did so i did not need to buy anything else but the tap and the couple screws. I ended up putting the tap in his pin vise, he has a nice one that i wanna get lol (hes a jeweler and owns his own jewelery shop so he has everything lol). I also got a #50 drill bit (one of them was $1.39 which is ridiculous considering i got a pack of 10 for $1.99, i just didnt have #50's :mad: ).

Brought it all home and my grandpa tells me the tap is a piece of crap, good old china imported crap lol. He brought out a massive book from a local tool supply warehouse, where we found a good old American made tap, that will do a better job, and its $5.99, so ill be going to get one of those along with a couple other tools next Monday with him lol.

Anyways, i put the #50 bit in a drill press and drilled all 4 of the holes out on all the frames (to bad i only brought 4 cars with me to there house, the other 10 will have to wait till next week when i come back over.... lol). The i used the pin vise with the 2-56 tap in it and taped all 4 holes in each frame all the way through, put them in an ultra-sonic solvent machine (he said it gets alot of the chips out that are left behind and also cleans the newly taped hole up real nice and smooth) then i blew all the holes out with the air compressor. Nice and shinny new taped holes!! Man they looked good lol. Put the brass 1/4" and 1/8" screws in there appropriate holes and bam, problem solved :mistht:

Now all's i need to do is put some .10 fiber washers under the trucks to stop them from hitting the underside of the frames and put some nice Kadee Couplers on them when i get them lol

Just thought i would share how my problem got resolved :D

Thanks again for all your help guys
 
Josh, I personally hate Roundhouse cars. They take a lot of cheap shortcuts like those self tapping screws. The old Roundhouse kits had metal underframes that took about a hlf hour to clean up and the coupler pockets never worked right. I know it's a division of Horizon Hobbies now but they still seem to use the crappy manufacturing techniques. Anyway, glad you got the problem solved. Sounds like you should stay on Grandpa's good side. :)
 
Jim, i agree with you, roundhouse cars have tons of problems with them, no matter what the car is, something always need to be done, and i hate spending more money on fixing somthing that is brand new to make it work how its supposed to work in the first place lol.

I always tell myself, no more roundhouse, and then i come up on a killer deal on 14 of these bad boys, and i just cant resist, you get what you pay for though! lol

Good old Chinese made junk those roundhouse cars can be, i mean the main bodies are alright and feature decent paint, but man the rest of the cars like the underframe and screws and such are just junk.


I just got back from True Value Hardware store, cleaned them out of 2-56 screws in both Phillips and Flathead in the 1/4" size lol, they didnt have 1/8" 2-56 screws, but i used 1/4" on the coupler pockets, and they worked fine, they just stick up a bit on the other side of the frame on the ends of the cars, i think i can trim them if i wanted to too....

They had them priced at $.32 and $.35 a piece, much better then $2.99 for 5 screws LOL, i got 29 1/4" screws all together from True Value, just over $10.00 lol
 


Josh, metric size screws will work fine for most applications. Once you get down to those tiny sizes, there's not a lot of difference between metric and SAE.
 
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