A Better Self Centering Technique for Sergent Couplers
I have proposed several solutions for self centering but I am always striving to improve. I admire the Kadee "whisker coupler" technique and wondered if it could be adapted. I grabbed my last #158, took a pair of pliers and yanked out the whiskers. They are crimped to the shank (more on that later). I glued the whiskers onto a Sergent narrow shank using CA in the same orientation as on the Kadees. I installed the result into an Accumate box and ... Viola! It works! Perfect repeatable centering, unrestricted lateral movement and importantly, very little force required to move the shank from side to side. The freedom of movement is important because that can sometimes be the difference between a successful coupling or not. If there is slight misalignment such that an open knuckle touches a closed knuckle the two couplers can sometimes slide apart to allow the join rather than pushing the open knuckle closed. This is more likely to occur if there is little resistance to sideways