The Home Machinist!

You remind me of myself 20 years ago. I lived in a studio apartment while in college, joined the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers, and got connected with an incredible builder/mentor ( John Bailie ) and a builder's group, and started a LE 0-4-0 Crab. All the machine work was done evenings and weekend...

I'm deeply saddened to hear this news. John was an incredible craftsman, mentor, and friend. I was a college student when I joined the SVLS in 2003, and John was one of the first people I got to know. A builders group was forming and he asked if I wanted to build a 'Crab' locomotive. Of course I sai...

I have one (a 2021 model); here are my thoughts: 1) Availability: when I ordered mine in 2020 they weren't going to make any more, but then they did. If they think there's a market for them, they will make more. There's also the used market to consider if you really want one. 2) Yes, the engineer se...

I would like at least one set of 2.5” scale brake valves. I might actually want two sets. I have multiple projects in the works and I’ve been wondering where I’d buy or make brake valves. These look great!

That is one unique tender, I like it!!! I was going to say the same thing! That looks very neat. Thanks Mike and Frank! It was originally an auxiliary tender built by John Bailie that I acquired and added a coal bunker. The huge dents make it especially unique, a form of weathering added by John wi...

My Crab steams great (on coal) with a 24" tall stack of 1.5" OD steel tubing (about 1.375" ID). I believe my boiler is about 1" taller than the original design though. John Bailie (who helped me through this whole build) had calculated that this would be a better design. My exhau...

I felt like Fusion 360 was so different from these other applications that even using it for a few years (since it came out) I never became as proficient with it as the others. This is an interesting comment. Having never seriously used any 3D CAD except Fusion, I have a couple of questions: What d...

Not free, but for the last year I’ve been using Alibre Atom3D: https://www.alibre.com/atom3d/ So far I really like it, and I think it’s a great value for the money. I come from an engineering background and also have a lot of experience with AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, Fusion 360, and Sol...

Wow, I'm bummed to hear I missed Vol 2 on eBay. I had an eBay watch for it, but there must have been a title mismatch. Terry, as it sounds like no one is claiming the copyright, would it be possible to scan and distribute Vol 2 and 3? They seem to be incredibly rare, and yet would be so valuable to ...

Anyone here ever tried sifting your own rock? I’m thinking trying, as in the Missouri Ozarks I’m on mostly rock! Building a rig for sifting doesn’t sound too hard in theory, but practically speaking it does sound tedious and might not be worth it.

Looks like great work so far! This is going to be quite an impressive locomotive; actually it already is! So what sort of machine tools did you end up with? And do you have any books or resources you found useful along the way? You’ve come a long way since acquiring small machine tools with no exper...

I’ve been researching this too, with nearly the same criteria as the OP. I’m currently leaning towards the NorthStar 60 gal, single stage: https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200756209_200756209 The CFM is on the low end (11.5 at 90 psi) but with a 75% duty cycle it seems like it would be ...