The Home Machinist!

I think you have the wrong thread Fender... More fiddling done today on the shay, valve should be here tomorrow. I have an idea on how I’m going to do my blower, going to start with a simple elbow with a short nipple attached and go from there. Playing with it on compressed air it seems to draft pre...

Im getting bad at remembering to update this... Too much time spent at work I guess lol. Either way, the petticoats now have a frame and are bolted inside the smokebox. Put my PVC test stack on as well and ran some air through the engine and it seems to have plenty of draft, so hopefully she'll have...

Id get the steady rest on there personally. For my crosshead guides I milled the bottoms flat and drilled the lower mounting holes, then I had a faceplate for the lathe with the same bolt pattern drilled and tapped in it. From there I used a live center in the tailstock to hold the casting steady so...

Tristan, I chose 1018 for the bars for the sharp square edges, but I traded ease of bending for final looks! The jig my grandfather made was very simple. It’s a block milled woth the proper angles for the bends with proper spacing, and is bolted to a heavy steel plate. I can probably re use his wit...

After much head scratching, I finally spent the day hogging off metal and machining the smokestack base. The radius isnt exact, but neither is the diameter of the smokebox. I scribed a line matching the radius of the smokebox on the side of the base casting where I'd get a 3/16" thick flange. Then I...

Welcome to the 20t club!
I bent mine in my 20 ton press. The bars arent perfect, but they were close enough. Personally, I dont think making a jig is worth it for two trucks. If you were batch making freight car arches, thatd be a different story.

Been a while since Ive posted an update here.... School kept me busy and Ive been running an experimental signal system at the railroad so both have cut into shay time, but things are moving a long. First the brake cylinder has been finished and mounted. Its a little stiff on air but I think it will...

I know the East Broad Top was an oddity with this, a lot of rolling stock that they handled was standard gauge cars that had been fitted with 3ft gauge trucks.

I remember what I did, it just came back to me. What I did for the big gears was drill and counter bore the holes in the face of the gear with the mill, holding it by the factory hub. I then used screws to attach the gear to the fixture in the lathe and cut the factory hub off with a handheld band s...

John, I bored the hole through the gear with the gear held on a fixture with bolts and then turned the lip by holding the gear through the center hole. I believe I used some spacers of soft metal between the jaws of the chuck and the gear so I could turn the whole of the lip, but I don’t remember fo...

125 and 130. Hope that tube isnt too much of a pain for you
And Id say theyre catching on! They nice looking and work well. Every pair I've seen snaps open and closed perfectly every time

Any idea when the next run will be? Im going to need safeties for my shay in the next couple months but never received a PM or an email from you that this batch was ready. I dont check this section of the board much so I haven't found out till now