Making a track punch

[Jim Baker]

My short punch has had a lot of work over the years, the long one not so much. I didn't want to break it so once I got a pin moving I would use another track pin to drive it out. Are other peoples long punches made of soft material? As lynn said adding 50-60 odd years of rust alters the equation and tends to bend the long punch

[Ben]

I bought and use a modern cvrt/432 track pin punch, it needs about 0.5mm turning off the diameter on the lathe but it's easy to do.

Works well but I've not tried hitting stuck pins, I suspect it would bend. It's almost identical to the original item.

[Stew Robertson]

Is the short punch not for knocking the heads off the pins and the long ones for driving the pins out
Just a question

[Marc van Aalderen]

Hi Stew,

How are you doing?

I think the short one is for forming the lead end-plugs, as Tony Smith already mentioned in post #12. The little tip is to short to even touch the pin. There must be another tool to hold on the opposite side while you deform the lead plugs that keep the pins in place?

Cheers,

[Tony Smith]

Aust (and NZ) Local Pattern track is different to UK and CDN track in that the track pins fit into a blind hole (not exactly, there is a small hole at the hull end of the pin bore, but it is much smaller than the pin dia.) and are retained by a lead plug on the outer end of the pin. The pins are plain rods with no heads or drillings for split pins. The lead plug is the same dia as at track pin, but is retained by deforming the lead into a groove in the bore.

To remove the pin, you punch the end of the pin through the small hole. You must provide enough force to both dislodge the weathered pin, and also to shear the rib of lead that has flowed into the groove.

While I still think this short pin would be ideal to use for compressing the lead plug, I also agree that it is probably a better tool to use for the force required to achieve the initial movement in removing a tight pin and plug than the long punch.

So to clarify that we're on the right track (pardon the pun), are both the short and long punches small enough to fit in the small hole at the end of the pin bore, or are they the same dia as a track pin?

[Tony Smith]

Now having written that, I see in Lew's pics of the finished product that the track he's using has track pins with heads! Is this UK track, or do NZ LP2A carriers use different design track to Aussie ones?

[Lauren Child]

While I have used one of these type pins as a track pin punch I don't think thats what it's meant for. The real track pin punches are rather more robust and don't bend like the one in the first post has.

I believe these pins are actually meant to hold CVR(T) track together and aligned while popping another pin in.