The Home Machinist!

Looks good. Don't forget plenty of tacks on the underside as well.

Keep your welds short, no long continuous beads as long welds will warp thin stock. Plenty of spot tack welds then short 1/2"-1" long beads.

What better opportunity to practice your welding?

Besides brazing will cause a great deal of heat distortion on 22 ga.

A drip pan is probably better bent and the corners welded though.

If that's corrugated roof decking above the insulation how about a chain up and over coupled with your anchor eye.

Your brazed bits don't look like they were ever sharpened. That is often the case with bargain carbide bits. Just brazed and sold un-sharpened. That bright shiny radius edge has got to go before you use them.

Top down and fill the thing part way with water would be much easier than a clay dam but reach may be a problem. A diamond grit glass drill shaped like a hole saw will cut the cleanest hole with the least amount of pressure or heat generated. http://www.drillglass.com/ For holding you could make two...

Flower pots are only partially vitrified (fused) and of a low temp porous clay. Forget the flower pot as it won't work. Not all clays are created equal and there are many entirely different formulations and types. Trust the crucible clay chemists to know which ones are suited for the job.

You have to see to weld. Too dark a shade forces your pupils to dilate fully straining to gather more light. It may be causing the eye strain you are experiencing.

Mcmaster Carr has Acme dies but they are for cleaning up existing damaged threads.

Acme thread profile is likely just to much stock to bully off with a die.

I know nothing what so ever about the trains you folks build and I am always impressed with the photos of work you guys do. I wouldn't know where to begin to compare the boilers you guys build to a water heater. Probably no comparison at all. I suspect it's the design and fabrication skill but not t...

The television show Mythbusters did an episode with a water heater. The destructive force is quite impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu3FwgIHsQA

one of the pockets for the brushes looks a little suspect Suspect in what way? When you disassembled this motor did you match mark the end plate? It affects how the brushes align with the magnetic poles. There may be a mark from the factory. You can't count on the motor bolts to make this alignment...