The Home Machinist!

A few years back I purchased a Maxitrak "Planet" locomotive. Essentially in stock form it is a simplistic model of a 2' gauge British 0-4-0 industrial gas mechanical locomotive. As far as a I know I am the only person here in the US who has one of these, making it the only 4.75" gauge Planet built t...

Thanks for the comments chaps. I appreciate that. Jack, I would love to visit your line when completed. I have always wanted to bring it down to LALS one of these days too. I better do it while I am still limber enough to go for a ride at ground level :wink: Bob, be sure to let me know when you want...

I have been building narrow gauge on 3.5" track for some time now. For me, it started when I bought a used O.S. Krauss from a fellow GGLS member. For the record, the Krauss was made by O.S. in 1:10 scale so it was a commercially produced narrow gauge model. The gauge in 1:10 scales to 35". I had alw...

I find this topic fascinating because I have built a large part of my career as a professional model maker around mastering techniques to make certain materials look like something other than what they are. I can tell you right now that I have built models that look like metal and you would never be...

PM Research sells them too. They call them "Globe Valve Knob" in their catalog. There are three sizes around 5 bucks each.

Regards,

Matt,
Did you get the emails I sent you?



Regards,

One more quick update before I turn in for the night. Here are a few pics of some of my recent work on the backhead details. http://wegmuller.org/v-web/gallery/albums/album77/IMG_2235.jpg New pressure gauge with fancy bracket, cab light and whistle piping are underway. http://wegmuller.org/v-web/gal...

Thanks for the comments everybody. :) Nico, PM sent. So work continues on the project. I am getting into some of the final fiddly details. It's all fun stuff though. Here is a look at some of the features of the cab: http://wegmuller.org/v-web/gallery/albums/album77/IMG_2231.jpg In this view you can...

Thanks for the comments guys. Altering the character of the little loco has been really fun. At this point the end is drawing closer. I should be steaming soon. Nico, I see you have a Tich. I have often thought about what I could do with one of those. One of the members at GGLS mad an awesome conver...

Mike Walsh said: I'd install a main fuel shut off for when you're not running. You know how nosy fingers tend to find their way around your engines and with a brake staff they'll be like "ooh, wonder how this mechanism works!" and then next thing you know, you have fuel all over the place... Mike I ...

Continuing on with the wood cab. I started framing out the roof support structure. As I mentioned earlier on, I had a chunk of some high tech material called diabond. It is a laminated board of PTFE plastic and aluminum layers making a really rigid and lightweight sandwich. It is also formable so I ...

Time for an update. I have been plugging away. Life often interferes. I am busy at work building exhibits for the next interactive exhibition at my museum. Fortunately I am working on some cool stuff-- a compressed air rocket launcher among other things. I did manage a couple hours over the past sev...