The Home Machinist!

I'm re-painting the boiler of my 1-1/2" scale mostly Allen 2-8-0 after 15 years with lots of miles. Originally, I had a couple of thin layers of cork insulation between the boiler shell and the sheet-steel jacket. I'm thinking that cork wasn't very effective, and I'm wondering whether anything ...

Thanks, Greg — That's a good idea, and I'm not too shy about revealing my mistakes — especially if it'll keep someone else from making them. And RussN — I do have EE injectors on two locomotives. They work very well, and I think will get better when I tune up the piping — easing the bends in the wat...

Thanks for the responses! After hunting down the sources for British taps and dies cited, consulting the voluminous files on injectors collected by Greg Lewis, looking at my inventory of fine-thread taps and dies, and looking at the brass i have on hand, I think I'll be ahead and probably better sat...

I have a couple of tired injectors, builder unknown, that I hope to clean up and rehabilitate, and I need to make connection fittings. I suspect the injectors are British, because the connection threads appear to be 9/16" x 26 tpi and 1/2" x 26 tpi, which I think are BSC (British Standard ...

One of the guys wonders if this diesel could be a product of Backyard Rails —does anyone know?

Here's a better view of the IC diesel. I'm not directly involved, but Steve has found several issues that needed to be addressed and took care of them. To me, the fan is poorly placed, but Steve suspects that the wasps' nest was more serious than the placement. I think that he'll finish the cleanup ...

I haven't been back out there yet, but one thing Steve discovered as he dug through cleaning things up was a wasp next plugging the fan and cooling fins.

Thanks! I can shoot a couple more photos next time I'm out there, probably a couple days.

Does anyone know who might have been the builder of this locomotive? Would like to consult on some issues, including overheating. It has Tecumseh 10 hp motor and Eaton hydrostat transmission.

My water glass valve problem wasn't on his valves or on a Godshall boiler, but I replaced all the water glass valves on my engine with ball valves I bought from Wayne Godshall. They work fine and make it easy to test-blow the glass.

Thanks for the information — I wondered whether Ed was sick or had gotten injured. I wish he would drop an email or text or something to let his customers know he's still alive and in operation, and maybe give an estimate on delivery. When I ordered it, he guessed six to eight weeks. Why am I in a h...

Has anyone had recent contact with west coast boiler builder Ed Perry? I ordered a new boiler for my Allen American last July and have heard nothing since. His phone goes to message. I'm wondering whether he is OK.