The Home Machinist!

Well, I ordered a couple of 2-bolt flange bearings with 1” bore for the body bolster center pin to sit in. The housing width is 2.756”, so it should fit nicely on my 3” with bolster. Guess I’ll see in how tight the bearings are and then decide whether or not to flap wheel them. Now to start working...

Well, I ordered a couple of 2-bolt flange bearings with 1” bore for the body bolster center pin to sit in. The housing width is 2.756”, so it should fit nicely on my 3” with bolster. Guess I’ll see in how tight the bearings are and then decide whether or not to flap wheel them. Now to start working...

I disassemble the pillow block and flap wheel the bore of the self aligning portion a little so they move easier, but if you have more weight it may not be needed. Pedantic note: What you are calling a "pillow block" is actually a "flange block." A pillow block is a base-mounted bearing unit. If yo...

I finished the last riding car wheelset last night. Had a little excitement when the lathe got noisy and then the belt came off, turned out the pulley on the motor came loose and walked outward on the shaft oops. I have some shorter bolts on the way for the bearings but they aren't coming until next...

Looking good! Lol, something looks vaguely familiar about your trucks. Been playing around with my booster bar setup. Looks like the Chevy valve spring will work good for me. All you'd have to do is mount a 2 bolt pillow block to the center of that bolster, and add two stanchions which come up from...

The bolster setup I run is Bigdumbdinosaur's design...I'm using 3/4" 2 bolt pillow blocks ($8 each) at the bolster pins... Not too much overkill, eh? :D Error on the side of caution and things will hold up when the unforeseen need to max them out arises. That's my motto :) Actually I have to take t...

Hey Curtiss, Good to see you making some progress. The riding car trucks above were my first revision, yours were scaled up and modified from those to closer match the NG truck sides. I have yet another version I'm using on my next builds that utilize 3/4" pillow blocks instead of 1" for a better lo...

Just an FYI, I know BDD, Harold, Glenn and I were discussing hardening of steel from the heat of laser or plasma cutting. On my little south bend 9" lathe it has enough umph now with the 1HP motor to cut the angle on the side of the flange ( side that you can see in my last picture) 1/8" at a time s...

it would stick out of the chuck way too far to risk center drilling in the lathe. Not true. Because the pressure of the cut is along the centerline of the material, it has little reason to deflect. If your chuck will hold the material well enough to support it without sagging, you will enjoy succes...

This is going to be a little complicated, because I'm looking to turn 1-1/2" hot roll(which isn't round worth a darn) down to 1" on each end and the axles are about 18" long. I'm not too worried about the center portion being balanced or running true, but just need the ends true to each other. I'm p...

Ebay has a bunch of them. I use ER-25 collets in straight shank holders that I hold in a 4-jaw. I can put that holder in a vise, also, though I use collet blocks when I can. Depending on the quality of collets you use, you may get better runout that way than depending on the spindle, adapter, and c...

Then all is well! The lack of 3-phase in much of the US is so odd to me. Europeans think of the US as the land of big power. I even had 3-phase in my house in a village in India. I have 3-phase on my houseboat in Amsterdam. It's the land of big power IF you spend big money. The utility wanted $40,0...