The Home Machinist!

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

Its looking like Im done with the hard iron on the shay, knock on wood. Got the 6 holes for the door dogs drilled and tapped, and only broke one tap! Luckily was able to get the end out with a pair of pliers. Doing the file test on the firebox door and ring, looks like they are softer than the smoke...

Thanks for the tips! I'll get the skin off so the tap wont rub on it. I have no idea how hard the iron will be under the dogs so I guess I'll find out. Looking forward to being done with the smokebox door though, hopefully the firebox door iron is softer.

Time for another update! The delivery and exhaust lines are complete and work on the smokebox door is underway.

Behold, corner burner iron! The foundry that made these castings should patent it as a surefire way to destroy drill bits. I had to resharpen my long 1/8" drill about 12 times to get the hinge done. On the bright side, I have gotten pretty good at sharpening drill bits by hand.

Yeah, one of those things with castings, especially thin ones. Anyway, resharpened my bit and managed to get the holes done. It made chips like ductile iron but Im pretty sure its gray, so couldve gotten chilled at the foundry. Hopefully the inner part of the ring isnt as hard because Ill need to ta...

I’ll try my hand at resharpening the drill bit and going again. Just odd that the center drill went in like it was butter but the brand new drill bit burned up on the first try. Wasn’t a cheap bit either, I’ve stopped buying the cheapest stuff out there because stuff like this happens.

While trying to machine the door ring for my smokebox, I've run into an odd snag. The cast iron burned up a brand new #19 drill bit after taking a #2 HSS center drill with no problems whatsoever. my 1/8" endmill and a #3 center drill also went in with no problems but as soon as I tried the #19, it s...

In this hobby, traction is almost always the limit to what your locomotive can pull. The more grip you get, the better it will pull. #1 thing is to have all axles powered. Then you can add weight later if you think your locomotive has enough power to do so, and you want to pull more. I'll agree wit...