The Home Machinist!

You say you don't have a son to pass on your knowledge to, well I guess I'm am lucky I have a son and daugther that I have passed this sport on to. My son is CA and my daugther lives about ten miles from me, so me and my daugther are going to start working on a all wooden clock( using a lathe and mi...

What do some of you do to drill brass without the drill grabing and yanking it through your pilot hole? I know it is some way you sharpen the drill, but now sure exactly how. Right now I drill my biggest hole first, then progressively smaller. This keep me from having to resharpen the drill, but the...

I may be over simplifying this, but why not make a tap?
Gary Helmick

Hi Chris,
This is a very small engine, 3/4" bore with a 1 1/4" stroke. I'm not into the "Big Iron" just small engines that I can do on my small equipment.
Thanks
Gary Helmick

I don't visit this forum as much as I should, so I don't know if this subject has been talked about. I just finished building a "Lil Popcorn Engine" and at the present powering it by compressed air. I would like to build a small boiler so I can run it on steam. All it needs is about 5 to 1...

I didn't sign in, I didn't mean to be "anonymous" [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/tongue.gif"%20alt="[/img]
Gary Helmick

I have used a coil off a old lawn mower motor. It has worked real well on the Adkinson Cycle Engine I built last year.
I use it with a small motorcycle 6 volt battery.
Good luck have fun.
Gary Helmick

Going through the many catalogs I get a week, I ran across the advertisment in the Enco Hot Deals catalog on a milling machine. This machine is a geared head mill/drill package that is advertised for $2295.00. I can buy a pretty good used Bridgeport with DRO and power feed for that kind of money. Gr...

Hi Mike, It looks like you are getting ready to undertake a interesting project. I have built some of Jerry Howell's project and I do like them. I also am getting ready to build the "PowerHouse". (as soon as I finish the "Lil Popcorn" steam engine. One of the easiest and most fun...

Thanks for the link to Jerry Howell's site. I had forgotten about it till you posted it.
I have built some of his projects, and was looking for some good ways to do ignition sets.
I just might do one on a Ottawa engine I have if the ignition ever goes out on it.
Thanks
Gary Helmick

Can't you hear me starting my pickup? I'm going to Lowe's right now.
You have convenienced me, you don't have to beat me over the head. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif"%20alt="[/img]
Thanks all for the heads up.
Gary Helmick

The way I did mine was to take an old washing machine speed reducer that has the solenoid that changes the speed. Just hooked tha motor to the input shaft and used a light switch to power the solenoid to change speed. Cheap, easy to do, and works great. It is only two speed, fast and slow. I have ne...