The Home Machinist!

With all the talk about trailer tires you better check the valve stems as well. I had two new unused tires still with the paper tag on them where the valve stems fell apart in three years. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened on the same day.
Just saying
John

I reshaped the stock ones on my Allen tenwheeler with the intent of replacing them at a future date. Worked fine for several years. Still on a friend's locomotive to this day. I did however have to make steel main rods because the castings broke when I tried to machine them.

That is correct. The original post mentioned that the engine is being restored so I am assuming that the engine has run for a number of years. Of course if the engine never ran correctly then...

An easy and quick test to see if the cranks are times correctly is to put one engine in either front dead center or back dead center. While moving the johnson bar back and forth the valve rod should not move
John

At Pacific Northwest Live Steamers with an Allen consolation.

At Joshua tree.

Just another argument against roll pins. I have an Allen ten wheeler where the outside rocker arms were originally pinned with roll pins. After a couple of years they started to get loose and developed slop for and aft. They have since been removed reamed and taper pins installed. This was over a do...

I turned the smoke box on both of my Allen's. The method was close to how it was described earlier. I bolted the halves together as described on the prints but threading the smoke box shell and bolting from the inside. I'm only a hobbiest and not a Machinist so I worked slowly and taking small cuts.

I have built both. The first being the ten wheeler. The consolidation I did 99% of the machining on my own. I heard Gene say that he chose Baker for the consolidation so that you wouldn't have to machine the large radiuses in the links.
John

"Highballing through the yard. Busting through switches. Never heard of such a thing"
Emperor Of The North.
Another favorite would be Danger Lights.

OK here's my rant. What the #### does any of this have to do with Live Steam. OK end rant.

ME

I silver soldered a flat flanged fitting to the center casting and used a compression fitting on the cylinder end. assembled in place tightening the compression fittings last.