The Home Machinist!

Gotcha ! Been there done that. I've got a box full of extra fittings, just in case.

Ken-

I'm using Rustoleum's red oxide primer for my riding car/hopper, and I think it's a pretty close match for the red/brown color used on so many different roads. It's a fairly flat finish, but the nice thing is it can be touched up and shows no spray can marks in the touchup area. Agreed. Rustoleum. ...

Yup, been there. I have to take mine apart the day before each run otherwise I'll be doing it at the track. I've talked to many who pressurize their boilers after running and then open the steam valve to the injector to blow out the residual water which seems to help with this issue.

Ken-

I have seen a lump of debris sitting on top of the steam cone. Pull the injector and get a 10-32 screw and pull the steam cone. If needs be make a special puller to remove the steam cone. They are sometimes very difficult to remove. I had issues with mine for awhile. I talked with Barry about this ...

The rivet-counter side of me would have liked to have used a cast block, but the practical side won out on this one due to the simplicity of this construction method when comparing it to creating cast iron block from scratch. - Ward Everyone who has seen my block asks me who I got the casting from....

Out west we generally attribute the built up cylinder block to Ed Yungling. Bob Reedy acknowledges this in his LS magazine build articles. But as in everything, it had been done before just not as prevalent. I'd seen pictures of them in early LS magazines and ME from way back. It's funny because a f...

Moldlay was the stuff that was recommended to me for investment cast 3D prints. Haven't had a chance to try either it or polycast.

https://www.amazon.com/PORO-Lay-Mold-La ... B00WAJBB48

Ken-

On my A3 I actually made a traditional steam dome which Kozo did not do for the A3 because the throttle assembly is brought out onto the top of the rear boiler barrel. My A3 is 1.5" scale so I have a traditional steam dome throttle. Because of that, I fabricated a real dome which gave me the ability...

I have a set of "lapping" tools with different size balls on the ends that I made. Basically I take a ball end mill with a matching radius, cut a dish in the end of the rod, and then Loctite a chrome ball to that. I then use a none destructive lapping compound like "Time Savers" to lap the ball onto...

Might be better to make a "spider" that either threads on or is a close fit to the major diameter of the threaded rod. This assumes the rest of the whistle is reasonably in line with said threaded rod. $.02

http://patentimages.storage.googleapis. ... 1171-0.png

Ken-

For miniature boilers, newly constructed boilers are hydro tested to two times the working pressure. New boilers that are taken to the 2 times working pressure, usually have all fittings removed and all bushings plugged except the one going to the hydro test pump. (A hand pump works fine for this) ...

That was a peculiar article with the author sighting 6 chime whistles as "out of tune messes". I was like, Huh? Anyway, I've built nearly 20 whistles, some of which work some of which don't :) I've bought pre-made whistles that worked on air and not steam. Horizontal whistles are a pain but it's tra...