FVM wheelsets

[Joetrain59]

Has anyone had a wheel separate from the bushing on the axle? This happened again, for me. Will not use that axle, as I tried to repair just by pushing wheel on, NFG.

 Speaking of wheelsets, is Atlas going to carry the BLMA wheelsets?

Thanks,
 Joe D

[mmagliaro]

Yup.. 

I've had them break off the bushing in my hand, and I even had a pack of 100 come with about 9 of them
already off the bushings.  A note to FVM got me an envelope with replacements in the mail in a few weeks -
good folks.

And yes, pushing them back on is very hard.  You'd think they would just pop on and with a little Loctite or something,
they would be good to go.  But they always seem to wobble when I put them back on.  I always do it by hand.
The trick is probably to make up a little jig and make sure you press the axle/bushing perfectly perpendicularly into
the wheel.  (not worth the trouble in my opinion).

[peteski]

Yes -  my experience is the same as Max's (including receiving great customer service from Matt @ FVM). 

[Englewood]

Out of probably a thousand wheelsets I've had two like that. I tried for too long to push it back on, and didn't succeed. So I just threw them away.

[drgw0579]

I've had that also with the narrow FVM wheelsets.  Never with the fat ones.  Trying to use CA to fasten them hasn't worked either.  When I buy wheels, I color code them so I know the axle length and maybe source.  I try not to buy narrow wheels because they tend to drop into the frogs on older Peco turnouts.

[Missaberoad]

I've had a couple axles out of a few hundred arrive like that... Just tossed them into the parts bin, didn't seem worth it making a big deal over. 

[Kentuckian]

Same with me, I've had two wheel sets out of 200 go bad. Wrote to FVM the first time and got a replacement; didn't worry about the second one.

[Snark45]

Me too  --  I've had one or two in every bag of 100 narrow-tread wheelsets do this.

You're right about FVM being great folks - I emailed them about this (not nasty, just to let them know it was happening) & they sent me a card of 12 axles unrequested.

I'm slowly converting all my plastic-wheeled cars...

Harry

[davefoxx]

Guess I'm beating the odds.  I have a bag of 100 wheelsets that I bought some time ago.  I never complained to FVM about it, but I bet a dozen or so have gone bad.  A few came out of the bag with the missing wheel and others popped off during installation.

DFF

[C855B]

Conversely,  I've consumed 700-800 FVM wheelsets from three different production runs without a single bad one. Given these reports, I must be overdue.

[Snark45]

Shhhh   ---   the gods hear...

[Joetrain59]

If Matts knows about this problem, why has it not gotten better?
Yes, it is a very low percentage though. I buy a few 12 packs at a time to convert to metal. But if there's a bad one or two, that means one car does not get converted.
  The BLMA wheelsets??
 Joe D

[mmagliaro]

Joe, I have thought the same thing, and I can only conclude that solving the problem must not be as simple as it seems.

And I have *never* had one go bad in operation.  They have only come that way in the bag, or fallen off in my hand when I'm trying to pop them into a truck. 

Come to think of this... a jig to fix these would be very simple indeed.  Just machine a slot in a block of metal, with the slot
being the exact diameter of the axle. 

Put a little epoxy or Loctite on the bushing, put the wheel rim on, and then push the axle into the metal
slit and hold the metal wheel down flat against the block while the LocTite cures.

I think I'll make me one of these and see how it goes.

[Kentuckian]

Nothing man made is perfect. The space shuttle flight failure rate was 1.5%.

[mmagliaro]

Nothing man made is perfect. The space shuttle flight failure rate was 1.5%.

Point taken, but I think the failure rate on these wheelsets, much as I like them, is higher than on any other wheelset I've ever had.
I don't recall ever seeing an Atlas metal wheelset with a plastic center just falling apart like this.

I cut my slot jig.  I will "break" a wheelset by popping the rim off the hub and then I'll see if I can glue it back on with the jig
and get a good wheelset out of it. 

I'm not sure how to judge it, other than just putting a repaired wheelset into a truck
vs two good ones in a truck and see if I can perceive anything different in how the truck rolls.
(Assuming the wheelset passes the obvious test of just rolling it on a piece of track and making sure it doesn't
wobble like crazy, which is what they usually do when I just try to push the wheel back on.)