The Home Machinist!

Hello My Friends
What Andy had here is the classic "Can O' Worms"...rust never sleeps.
Jack

Hello My Friends Greg touched on an important point. It's a pleasure to walk into the shop in the morning, turn on the lights and have a clean shop ready to go. I had an old friend named Willy. He was absolutely brilliant and a problem solver. He often got difficult jobs no one else would touch. He ...

Hello My Friends I usually clean as I go. If I have to change or re position a part to be machined I will clean up between operations. Broom and dust pan for the large swarf on the floor and mill, and then the vac. Probably not the floor everytime, but usually several times a day. Perhaps I'm overdo...

Hello My Friends
The secret is out, Greg is correct. There are two of me. But I am the smart one. You can tell he's the other one by the blank confused look on his face. And mom always liked me best!
Bozo

Hello My Friends
Most excellent workmanship Brian. It's been a pleasure to watch your progress. And you're very welcome for the thank you. Knowing that you were able to use some of my tips concerning sheet metal forming made my day. Keep up the fine work.
Jack

And here we have the results. Some pretty cool union ells. The Y fitting and the 45 degree union ell were made up. I have the Y fittings available as investment casings in three sizes, 3/16"- 1/4", and 5'/16". J. You can also make union tee's using this method. It's fun to make little baloney like t...

Now here we have the ell sat on a fire brick and held with a frog. It has been fluxed and two tiny bits of silver solder have been placed on it. In the second photo you can see how much solder is used. Very little is needed. The only silver solder on hand is 1/16" dia. This is much too big so it is ...

Hello My Friends Here is something you may find useful. Steam locomotives had a wide variety of pipe fittings on them and some were union ells. These can come in really handy, especially when there isn't much room to work with. They are easy to make up from commercially available bits like regular e...

Hello My Friends
String was used to wrap the tube. I believe I mentioned that in the text. But the size wasn't noted, which was .025".
The old Bozo in the photo isn't me it's my evil twin brother.
Jack the Old Bozo

Hello My Friends
I was surprised how fast the back up lamps went out the door. I had 12 of them and they're all gone. I'll be making more soon. Thank you to all who purchased them
Jack

Now we are getting somewhere, the hose with some little fire hose type connectors stuffed in the end and some clamps that were made up. I have seen otherwise beautiful model locomotives with giant hideous hose clamps right out in front of God and everybody. Heavens to Betsy, come on man! A model is ...

Now it's time to coat the hose. I used to use self vulcanizing tape for this and it worked pretty good but I have found a much better method. You have all seen the commercial for Flex Seal on TV. This is some pretty good stuff, they sell it at Wally's. Spray a nice wet coat on the hose and let it se...