The Home Machinist!

0351 wrote: ↑

Fri May 22, 2020 11:12 pm

Well, I ordered a couple of 2-bolt flange bearings with 1” bore for the body bolster center pin to sit in.

Almost strong enough for a full-sized car.

I disassemble the pillow block and flap wheel the bore of the self aligning portion a little so they move easier, but if you have more weight it may not be needed. Pedantic note: What you are calling a "pillow block" is actually a "flange block." A pillow block is a base-mounted bearing unit. If yo...

The nice thing about this design is it doesn't require the bolster surface to be perfectly flat or the pin perfectly straight, as it acts only as a pivot point. The bearings that ride on the frame keep things straight and level, and also distribute the load much closer to the wheels instead of at t...

rkcarguy wrote: ↑

Wed May 20, 2020 1:21 pm

The bolster setup I run is Bigdumbdinosaur's design...I'm using 3/4" 2 bolt pillow blocks ($8 each) at the bolster pins...

Not too much overkill, eh?

I've been attempting a rebuild of one of those ball and socket jointed soldering helping hands contraptions, the ball ends aren't what you would call a ball more door knob shaped and what I'm doing is annealing ball bearings so that I can drill and silver solder new rods into the balls to get true ...

...We have been using some number 51 drills to do this. Despite being very careful and choking right up on the drill bit we managed to break all but one of the drill bits we bought. Drills that small need to be run at high RPM in order to cut at a satisfactory rate. Otherwise, you will find yoursel...

dorin: Thanks for the revised URL BDD: "....but I'm completely baffled why anyone uses that junk." What do you recommend instead of McAfee? I have used it for years with no problems, but am not stuck on it. --earlgo I don't recommend any of that stuff, as it mostly doesn't provide the protection th...

Speaking as someone who was trained at the Parker factory on the fine art of plumbing a high-pressure hydraulic system and making it look good, I must commend you on the quality of your work. There's a certain amount of charm and beauty in plumbing that looks like that.

Make sure you go to http s ://www.chaski.org, not http//www.chaski.org. (notice the 's') click here: https://www.chaski.org/homemachinist This should be secure. https has the secure socket layer. Http does not. -Mike I come in on HTTP: (port 80) instead of HTTPS: (port 443, also called HTTP over TL...

Mr Ron wrote: ↑

Mon May 11, 2020 10:17 am

They come with either a cast iron head or a hardened steel head. Which is best?

Six of one and a half dozen of the other. Only thing is castings can be broken if dropped. The squares I have are cast and are in very good shape, even after some 45 years of usage.

ccvstmr wrote: ↑

Wed May 06, 2020 7:53 pm

Can tell you, Amtrak never had classy lamps like this (maybe that was a good thing)...

It's probably a sure bet Amtrak hasn't had the interior lighting start the car on fire. Can't say the same, though, about fires in the electrical panels.

jmurray wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 5:04 am

Steve Tune now operates under the business name Museum-Trains. He can be found on facebook.

Facebook isn't useful to anyone who isn't signed up on Facebook. Why would a business go that route and not have an actual website?