I bought a used Trainli dual rail bender. Looks brand new.
It didn’t come with wrench, allen wrench or instructions.
I’m sure I can come up with the wrenches, but not the instructions.
I sent a message to Trainli, but I have not heard back.
Does anyone have a set of instructions they could share?
Thanks!
Tom
Tom, is it lacking the knob on the main (horizontal, central) adjustment bolt? It should have that, it’s the main thing you adjust.
I don’t recall instructions when I got mine new, but maybe there were…
[edit]
At the risk of leading you astray, here’s a few comments on how I’ve use it.
I hope this doesn’t sound discouraging; I just want to be clear on what I’ve experienced. Hopefully, others will add their thoughts, I’m sure I’ve left plenty of important pointer out.
The main thing is, have fun with this! Because once I got into it, this track-bending and laying phase was one of the most satisfying steps of the entire hobby for me.
Cliff
Tom, I didn’t remember receiving instructions with mine either. I just went down and double checked mine and the packaging that it came in…yup, no instructions.
The rail bender does not come with instructions.
I can tell you that this unit is heavy so do not press down when bending, like ironing just glide the bender.
Metal has memory so be sure to slightly over bend as the metal will tend to lessen the bend.
Fot Stainless, be sure to go in small steps and DO NOT USE THE WRENCH to tighten the bend, you will break the screw drive, go in smaller steps!!!
How do I know this… I repaired several for Trainli customers and have my own unit and have bent track for myself and others.
It is the best of the benders … I have used it to straighten some track … not the normal way either … like left or right … but up and down … (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Mine had no instructions, either . Not hard to figure out. Practice on a scrap piece of track. Use small adjustments with the knob, instead of trying to bend
the rail with one pas thru. It came with code .332 rollers. If you use .250, those rollers are available from Train Li.
You can use rail clamps to add more track sections and bend through the joint for smoother curves, than trying to bend the ends separately. Lack of a fulcrum leaves short straight sections on the ends.
People recommend the “double” split jaw clamps, but I have been able to bend stainless with just the singles. I had to change some 10’ diameter down to a bit over 9’ and I connected 2 sections together with clamps and bent them down to the diameter I wanted, then I trimmed the ends and connected the 2-section pieces together and bent them again (mostly where they joined), there was some minor trimming of one rail after that, but pretty darn close. I removed all screws from the track (Aristo) except for one on each rail in the center of each section.
Be sure you put “open” the bender pretty much all the way, and then tighten down… many first timers do not get the bender on the right side of the rails. Each rail basically has 3 wheels, 2 on one side, and one on the other side.
Which side of the rail is the 2 and which side is the 1 is whether you are tightening the curve or loosening it. If you put the bender on, you will see the force comes from the single moving wheel, so the single wheel on the “inside” of the curve will bend it more, and the single wheel on the outside of the curve will straighten it.
Most people’s difficulties come from either not straddling the rail with the 3 wheels properly, or having it on the wrong side (turned 180 degrees) so that they are straightening instead of bending.
I suppose a video would help, for some people this is really obvious, and for some others, it just does not “click”.
Greg
In the first video by putting it upside down and using a single rail it does give a clear indication of how the rail threads through the bender, that is helpful.
Then he spends endless time making it more curved for some reason.
It does show how the bender won’t bent the last 2-3 inches of rail pretty clearly
At 5:45 he encounter the extra rail joiners that for some reason LGB loves to put in the middle of a 2 foot section … but he says “it’s just the ties”…nope it’s the rail joiner in the middle of the section, you can see it.
Eventually he smashes the joiners enough to get the bender by somewhat.
In the second video I want that mirrored rotating display turntable ha ha!.
From the now defunct LSOL.COM, he shows some track, but wisely bends the aristo, not the lgb with the rail joiner the size of an Edsel in the middle of the section.
He also mentions removing screws from aristo track, but does not talk about cutting the web on other track.
First time I saw the nice little wrench and allen wrenches.
Thanks, John!
The wrench is almost a must for bending stainless. Its not quite as critical for brass.
As for showing how it worked, I demonstrated it for a friend of mine when I loaned it to him. He was trying to figure out how to clamp it to his workbench, when I tossed a piece of track onto the floor of my porch, and started ironing in a curve. Once he saw how it worked in person, he was stunned as to how easy it is to use, and he was able to make all the curves he needed for his railroad without any further assistance. Its so simple, but the track does need decent support while bending the track.
Cliff Jennings said:
Tom, is it lacking the knob on the main (horizontal, central) adjustment bolt? It should have that, it’s the main thing you adjust.
Cliff. It has the knob.
Tom
I don’t recall instructions when I got mine new, but maybe there were…
[edit]
At the risk of leading you astray, here’s a few comments on how I’ve use it.
- I work with 5’ sections, putting the tool on loose, and gradually tightening it while moving the tool back and forth on the track in a sort of ironing motion.
- You really need that knob; it would be tough getting out a wrench with this constant adjusting.
- My rail (nickle-plated brass) is springy, so the tightening of the tool on the rail had to over-compensate. So after I’d put the tool on the track, and tightened it a lot to produce the final curvature, the amount of curvature in the actual tool was dramatically sharper than how the track was curved after taking the tool off.
- I found the markings on the tool not very purposeful. I could have experimented with settings and results, but it also depends on how many times you run the thing over the track, so…
- I don’t see how you can use this sort of tool to pre-bend track at a consistent curve by running it off the end. IMO, you have to have track on a curve connected together and bent together.
- More specifically, when there are joints on a curve, I always overlap rail joints (to reduce the kinking effect at the joints) and run the tool over the joints and adjoining sections.
- A nearby rotary tool to cut the rail is indispensable.
I hope this doesn’t sound discouraging; I just want to be clear on what I’ve experienced. Hopefully, others will add their thoughts, I’m sure I’ve left plenty of important pointer out.
The main thing is, have fun with this! Because once I got into it, this track-bending and laying phase was one of the most satisfying steps of the entire hobby for me.
Cliff
I would like to thank everyone for the suggestions. I guess I will just give it a try.
Tom
They are great benders and all the advice above is good. However, the track I used mine on was Aristocraft stainless and unless I cut the connecting plastic between ties on the straight sections, the tie strips would bend the track back nearly to its original shape. I turned the track over and cut the connecting webs with a hacksaw. Aristo curved had tie strips with these cuts already in them, but the straights didn’t. I cut every other one, because that’s the way the factory curves were done. So the factory curves could be made tighter or looser, but the direction of curvature could not be reversed.
Trainli sells American cement style ties in packs of 10. These are for straight rails and need to be cut for bending.
I keep these in the 10 pack and use a band saw to cut all 10 ties at once.
For USA and Aristo ties, I use a dremel tool with the right angle attachment to cut the ties. If you do not have the right angle drive I urge you to get one, makes the dremel even more useful!!
I used mine on LGB track. And now I remember I did have to remove that “dummy” rail joiner that is in the center of the track section.
I do what Dan did, a light touch with the Dremel cutoff wheel cuts ties nicely.
Even with cutting ties, Aristo SS needs to be “overbent” it springs back a lot!
And I have never figured why LGB put that joiner right in the middle of a continuous piece of rail… must be some secret.
Greg
LGB probably cast their ties in 1 foot (mm equivalents) lots and because they made 1 foot sections of track, the joiners were an automatic addition molded onto the ties.
Cheaper to sacrifice cheap joiners than remake a mold? Apparently.
I think LGB put the joiners every foot to mimic jointed rail.
I’d like to reinforce Greg’s comment about overbending the curve, even with brass and aluminum. When the sun hits the rail the first time, it will relax a lot.
Along with nipping the tie webs (on the outside of the curve), I removed all the screws that held the ties to the rails. This also makes it easier to slide on replacement ties when the deer break a few.
