The Home Machinist!

If it's 1" scale that scales to 9 ft wide, modern train cars are around 10 '-6". So that would probably be a b out right for an early American type to be 9 ft wide

Looking fore a rd to the day you can have an invitational meet.

Rob

I have read that paper gaskets work best if they are coated with shellac.

Rob

I use 5 or 10 thousands thick PTFE Teflon. Easy to cut with razor blade or exacto knife, and punch holes into.

They are reusable since they do not stick to the surface. Most paper gadgets delaminate when taken apart.

Rob

Obviously someone has spent too much time in Covid isolation. Wish we could have attended the meet.

Rob

Just get one more small sprocket and put a bronze beearing in it for the idler/tensioner. The small sprockets are cheap.

I believe the locomotive at 2:45 in the vedio is Joe Hilds B & O P7 Pacific. It may be his brother Herb operating it. I currently own it and run often at Pioneer Valley Live Steamers.

Word of caution when drilling thru boiler shells, make sure the drill bit can't grab as it breaks thru and go in deep enough to poke a hole in a boiler tube. And that a tap will not project thru and do the same. Saw it happen to someone once on a copper boiler and the tube had to be replaced.

Rob

I pipe my bypass line back to the tender and position it where the discharge can be seen thru a port when the bypass is open. Puting your finger against the line shows if its pumping pressue as well. Not a gage, but works well for me on 3 locomotives.

Rob

I put large band clamps around the smoke box and kept reposkoning them as I machined it. I machine it with a plywood plate with a metal center plate I, the middle and the other end in a 4 jaw chuck. Machined it half way and the turned it around and machined the rest. I also had dowel pins in the joi...

Yes, I had to machine down the OD of my Allen Ten Wheeler aluminum smoke box.

Is the splinded shaft
Large enough to drill and tap with NPT thread. Spilt the shaft with 2 or 3 saw cuts and then put on a pipe plug to rap and the shaft into the female part. There are flush pipe plugs that would not stick out when assembled.