Need tips on building backyard hobbies cicada
 

I got the backyard hobbies cicada and am having trouble in the first few assemply steps. The problem is that the carbon rods will not slide on the plastic M-tee's. It's impossible to get them on even a little bit. I tried filing down the ends of the rods but for the M-tees which need to be slid all the way on this doesn't help at all. I bought some small files and am trying to file down the inside of the plastic M-tee's to give it more room but the plastic doesn't seem to file down at all. Any help would be great, thanks.

-TAvis