The Home Machinist!

The trick to firebox culinary is to wait until you've reached your destination and the firebox has cooled down a bit. This is usually when the cinders have all been ejected to their new home in the smokebox or along the ROW. At this point, the crew has worked up a good appetite as well. You must coo...

Thanks, but I'm more of a firebox "brats and oinions" guy myself.

Prototype distance would be 3" - 6" above the railhead. That scales out to 3/8" - 3/4" on a 1 1/2" scale model. Keeping yours to the max wouldn't look out of place. Most pilot damage occurs when the lead truck wheels or the first set of drivers derail and the locomotive slid...

now if someone could come up with a 'slate magnet' to sort out the coal from the junk....I would purchase one. Being a fireman on full size steamers and knowing the ill effect of too much slate on the grates, when I have a second or two I look at the coal on the "shovel sheet" of the tend...

Personally, I like the challange of coal firing. I started with my first live steam engine at 14 years old and learned that maintaining the correct fire in the box was paramount to keeping the pressure up. Too much, too little, too deep here and too shallow there were all part of having a good day o...

Procering (on the firebox end) was used to keep the tubes from moving in the tube sheet due to expansion and contraction. Especially when copper ferrules were used. The procered ring helped to keep the ferrule from sliding out towards the water side while the fire side was beaded. The copper ferrule...

Having worked on, trouble shooted (shot?), and adjusted full size Consolodated safety valves, here are some of my "learnings". Each valve is desiged to work within a 10 pound range of setting. (+- 5 pounds). Any more than 10 pounds, and a different spring is required. Once the popping pres...

They look great!! Nice simple design perfect for mass production in the home shop!!

"Keep on truckin'"....someone had to say it.

I may be able to fill in some of the missing blanks B: Looks like the nut for a right angle grinder or polisher to hold the wheel or disk to the shaft. G: These look like hardened dowel pins P: Sleeve for adapting different size shafts (boring bars, drills etc) in endmill adapters. The slot allows s...

If you're building track from scratch, a powered plate tamper is your best friend. Getting the subroadbed packed and relativly level first goes a long way later. I purchased my plate tamper from Harbor Freight when it was on sale at 30% off, it still cost over $300 but worth every penny. I also have...

Speaking from personal experience with building my home railroad: If your radius is 50 feet or less, I highly recommend using a rail bender with aluminum rail. Even though aluminum rail is generally a soft easy to bend alloy, once the rails are put in place in a track panel, they do not bend smoothl...

Power went out mid proof reading. Had to repost