The Home Machinist!

Or you could just accept a non safety circuit that works like a switch and move on. I'll insert the disclaimer here as I been witness to a rear ending where a diesel ate a caboose because the non safety detection circuit failed. It was a temporary wire that had been screwed down to the tops of the ...

The only thing I can think of is to try some anti-spatter spray? Might keep the "berries" from sticking to the steel around the weld and ease cleanup.

You're making some good progress Glenn. I haven't really found a cheap option for a MIG welder you typically get what you pay for. I got lucky and grabbed a Miller-matic 250 from a fence and gate shop that closed in the "great recession" for $800 with a large tank, tub of tip dip, and all the extra ...

I got my building permit so I am going to be changing gears on this build. I'm hoping to finish up these wheel sets and get the riding car rolling, and then I will be transitioning into site work and grading my ROW as extra dozer time and weather allows....maybe laying some track and my first turnou...

I found that when I welded my first two together the ends of the rails that extend beyond the legs wound up pulling downwards a little bit. This is hard to get rid of, the welded side will always shrink unfortunately. If you were to use two different sizes of tube, and have one go through the other...

I sold several of the ones I was planning on keeping lol, and then our laser got really busy at work. I'll see if I can work another run of parts into the cutting schedule and update this post when I have more.

Very cool!
I have access to a 2D laser plate table and CAD and have been enjoying these for my backyard RR build.
It's wonderful to be able to tab stuff together, simply draw it with a few thou clearance and things go together like lego's.

My workplace has a piping division, and there is a pretty particular method used to wrap pipes that are being buried in the ground that they don't want to rust out or freeze. I've seen it done, and they use some sort of mastic like black goo, cloth, and more goo which provides an insulated waterproo...

The riding car wheel sets are ready for final turning. I drew up a quick set of parts for a truing stand that I had laser cut with my brake parts, it worked good getting the side to side wobble down to .010" or less. Not acceptable for a locomotive, but for rolling stock it will do. When and if you ...

New shop and new toys/tools to go in it, awesome!

brakeparts.jpg Here's a picture of the brake shoe parts. These are like backwards drum brakes, where they will lie in pairs between the wheels and ride on slices of 4" pipe I welded behind one wheel on each axle. The convex parts of the back of the shoes will rub on the bolster and acts as stops wh...

I'm slowly getting the wheels trued up within reason on the axles, and got all the brake shoe parts ran through the laser yesterday. I also drew up some simple parts for a wheelset truing stand that I had laser cut, basically a pair of stands that take two ball bearings each with a dip between them ...