The Home Machinist!

Most of the aluminum I use for casting came from other cast aluminum items and scrap cast pieces supplemented with small quantities of extruded aluminum. Recently I came into a few 5 gallon buckets of free machining aluminum scrap which I intended to mix in with my other ingots and cast scrap to use...

Mike, the ratchet assembly isn’t that simple, there’s an internal gear that would be nearly impossible to duplicate; I believe the entire assembly is die cast in Zamac. The cone pulleys have four steps with a fifth step in the rear pulley for a brake. I use mine from time to time, there are a few th...

Thank you.

Steggy, I have a question about the pivot link in your diagram labeled item #2. Does that link hang vertical when the brakes are off or is it at some angle to vertical? Thank you John

Steggy, I’m using a 24 volt motor and gear train to for propulsion. I’ve been working on a prototype Blomberg truck that I’ve been revising and adjusting to eliminate problems and interferences that I encounter as I work through the build. I’m trying to stay true to the Blomberg design with the bols...

Beautiful work Steggy, I’m going to try and do what you did but in 1” scale.

Try PMC Foundry Supplies

So last night I went through my bucket of scrap plumbing pipe and fittings and cobbled together a 1 cubic inch air tank with a pressure gauge and ran a test on the air pump this morning. Using compressed air starting at 100 psi and dropping to 80 psi the pump produced 1 cubic inch of compressed air ...

Thanks Keith! There are only a handful of guys running 1” and 3/4” at NJLS these days, never saw a track brake. Thanks again, John

Keith, track brakes are something I never saw nor heard of, do you have a picture or drawing? Thanks, John

I guess the first thing to do is determine the productivity and capacity of the pump, but regardless, it doesn’t seem like the best way to go. Steam, air or vacuum, none of my cars are equipped with brakes, and with the variety of obsolete truck brands on the cars, fitting them with brakes isn’t som...

Has anyone had any luck with 1” scale air brakes? I acquired a very nice 1” scale duplex steam driven air pump that may produce 20-30 psi and I have a 1” scale Atlantic that has a functional steam brake system. The steam brakes are more trouble than they are worth, but since I now have an air pump w...