The Home Machinist!

Even the number of 7.5 gauge locomotives that are north of 100K is tiny. Sure maybe the big boy on DLS a few years back or Tom's k36, no idea what the NKP berk built by Bruno just sold for, but probably under 100K? who knows. Now of course if you hire someone like Bruno or godshall to build a big b...

It's time for a long overdue update. After struggling with the crankshaft it is finally thankfully behind me now. Making the spline shafts took some tries to get it all right, even then I had a minor goof where somehow something slipped or I lost account, and one side on one set of teeth is off a li...

Chris I must ask how did you go from modeling some of the world's most beautiful steam locomotives to a Chinese C2? Is there a good story there?

Christian, sorry to be of little help here as that is the opposite side of the country for me, but sometime in late May to July or August I am supposed to be in Hamburg, is there any way to see those beautiful locomotives in Germany later on in the summer? If you can squeeze it in, Chama New Mexico...

Christian, sorry to be of little help here as that is the opposite side of the country for me, but sometime in late May to July or August I am supposed to be in Hamburg, is there any way to see those beautiful locomotives in Germany later on in the summer? If you can squeeze it in, Chama New Mexico ...

From Micro Mark I purchased three truck kits in plastic in 1/24 scale. My idea is to scan the parts with a scanner I'm yet to buy, and reproduce some, not all, of those plastic parts on the 3D Router I have. They would be done in 1/8th scale. When will I do the work, what material will I use, wont ...

They come up on Facebook Market Place a lot for around 500 bucks. I have been tempted to buy one however no good place to put it in my shop. I just searched my local marketplace here in Connecticut, there's probably about 10 listings all under $500, and more under $1000. Every time I go to remove a...

since I don't have a grinder, I use a square collet in my lathe with a stop in the back... your solution is much more elegant...but also requires that a smithy learn to run a grinder..... looks really cool....keep on truckin' I haven't paid much attention to the market lately, it's very possible mu...

Bill, I think you're on to something there with running this thing and dykem first. When I first started playing with the dividing head I stuck a sharpie in the spindle just to make sure it all was adding up on the large scale, but it didn't really show too much. I think dykeming the whole shaft up,...

Well tonight's update is a disappointing one. After spending the past few weeks working on the crankshaft disaster struck when I made an embarrassingly stupid misread of the dividing head again! Now a good month's worth of work is probably destined for the scrap bin. I had built up the entire shaft ...

I was telling someone about this locomotive is it has to have been one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I went looking the other day for the photos that I think used to be posted at that UPenn website and now they're sadly gone. Does anyone know where I can find the build photos of this locom...

What did you do for the reflector? Did you find a donor flashlight or make something?