Koltorp - Atlas ZamZoodled
This article was published Feb 19, 2017.
Assembled and mounted my first Zamzoodled couplers today.
While still in one piece (easier to hold) I did drill up the holes a bit, so the steel thread did go through properly. A small bowl with water was handy to dip it in sometimes, since such a small metal piece gets very hot when drilling in it. Here you see how I just finished that.
When that was done I did cut them of from the casting. As you can see I ruined one of them by cutting to close. This was first time I zoodled, so I forgive myself.. After that I hold the hooks with pliers while I did sand of a few edges and also narrowed it a bit to fit in the coupler better. Again dipped it in water to be able to hold it (used my dremel to sand). Put it in the coupler and put a thread through. Bent the thread under the coupler and cut of leaving a bit.
Here is it time for the pocket. I did not know which to use, so I just picked the biggest one which would give the coupler best movement. After I parted the couplers I did sand them a bit like an arrow to get easier in. While test-fitting the coupler in the pocket I realized I had to push rather hard to get it in place, harder then I wanted to do while installed, so I did put the coupler in the pocket before I glued it in place with AC glue.
Here is a closeup from behind.
From the front.
On the track. I did brush paint them several times with diluted gun metal with a drop of flat agent added. It turned out to be wrong, I do not like the result. Next time I will just air-brush a very dark gray and dry-brush some rust after when dry.
Very satisfied with the mount. Was easy enough, no problems at all. They stick out a bit to much, so next installment I will look into how I can improve that. Also I think I will paint them before assembling, easier to redo if I do not like the result, plus avoiding getting the hook to stick to the coupler cause of paint inbetween. They did not stick this time, but I can see they easily would..