I’m getting ready to put together the Fruil together for my Tiger I early. I’m going to be using straight pins instead of the wire that came with them. I appears most of you trim off the point and leave the pin head attached, but some of you don’t.
What is the general consensus, pros and cons to either method. Which is easier? Which looks better? Most realistic loog?
The pins that I use are just a little bit bigger than the wire in the kit. I measure how long the pin is vs how huch will be needed to hold the track together. Once I know that length I TAP the pins in far enough that I can remove the head pf the pin and then drive the pin in the rest of the way with a drift punch. If you leave the pin too long it will come out the other side, too short and the track will spread on the unpinned side, gaps.
I picked up some scrap Fruil tracks to play with. I did not have much luck superglueing the wire in and found out that pins too big will split the tracks,and too long will come out the other side.
Make sure that you have wire cutters that can handle the pins, the plastic cutters most of us use to clip parts from the spruce will be destroyed by the steel pins.
Watch out for the flying pin heads when you clip them off! Wear safety glasses or googles. I use a large paper bag, place the track section in side after I have positioned the wire cutter on the pin. When I clip it off it stays in the bag, not in my eye or anyone’s else in the room and not on the floor to be stepped on. OUCH!
I use the Pins with the coloured ball on the end,
i cut them of when there in the track, i use the ones with the balls becouse if i miss any when im cutting them of and they end up on the floor its easy to find them
I left the heads on on my Panther, remember that Friuls have left and right sets which puts the cut end on the inside. one thing I recommend if you cot the heads of is to remove the sharp point of the pin, even with gentle tapping it could poke out the other side.
I do the same as Derek! the pin head will be on the inside of the track, and once painted, and weathered, becomes very much a part of the track assembly, you hardly notice it. A method I use for cutting the pins, and avoiding the flying debris, is I lay a cloth large enough to cover my lap, and hold each pin up against it when I cut the pin. The sharp cut part of the pin sticks into the cloth. This has worked well for me, and allows in my case, a more comfortable position for cutting. I’ll do 50 or 60 at a time. And as has been mentioned several times, be sure, and wear some kind of eye protection just in case a pin should go ballistic. Semper Fi, mike
with you leaving the pin head in the track.
re cutting in first place, i use blu-tac (US name??)and fix pin to board with a pen marking relevant length…uniform length pins, and none stick in fiancee’s feet!!! [:0][B)][:p]