The Home Machinist!

Getting lots of shop time now, and making progress. I welded up all the bolsters, ground the filler metal, and drilled all the appropriate holes. I assembled one set of spring planks today, and will start assembling the tender truck tomorrow. I got the rest of the journal castings and columns from J...

Been a busy summer with lots of home projects, with a little work in the shop on the side. Finally got all 4 wheels turned, axles turned, rim gears modified and mounted. Purchased dry ice yesterday, cooled the axles overnight, heated the wheels in the BBQ this morning, and pressed them on the axles....

Would anyone happen to have a scan (or willing to take a decent quality digital picture) of a Shay cylinder drawing? I'm modeling one in 2-1/2" scale, and the prototype is a 12x16 cylinder. I may e out of luck with the original drawing from CSRM, ACHS, and Dan Ranger. Almost any large cylinder ...

Finally got back out to the shop after a too long hiatus. First driver done, 11 to go...arghhh

I'm using indexable TiN coated carbide, TCMT inserts on both my boring bars and turning tools (2 different sizes, obviously). I'm using CM14 (the manufacture's grade) from Cobra Carbide. They recommend them for a variety of material, and I've had good results on both cast iron and steel with them, a...

Harold,
I'll take that to heart and try it on the next wheel But definitely with the shorter boring bar that may give me a more precision.

Jim

I drilled and bored my first driver today. Went very well. I used a trick taught to me by a machinist friend of mine. I first drilled the hole with a 0.50" bit, then bored it with a boring bar to about 0.745", with a goal of 0.748' for a press fit on a 0.750" axle. His trick was to ta...

Finally got out to the shop to do a little work today. I was able to face the first driver. The hub is countersunk 0.150" from the face of the wheel to accommodate the gear hub. I removed that much from the driver hub, and removing 0.100 from the right side journals I purchased from John Buckwa...

Thank you all for your input; It is greatly appreciated. I will start turning this week. Brian, very, very nice work on your wheels. Thank you for sharing your pictures. And thank you for the kind words about my castings. It was the first (and only) pattern I've made. It was quite a learning experie...

So I've machined the back of my wheels, and left a 50 thousands shoulder for the axle to mate with. I've also turned them down to the rough finish diameter. I'm now set to face to finish thickness, bore the wheel and cut the tread. I've indexed the wheel in the picture to center on the four jaw chuc...

I do. Here is the copy from Shaylocomotives.com. I have an 11x14 copy as well, from Martin Hansen in Bend, Oregon.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, gentlemen. I don't work real fast, but think through my processes well and produce he best quality parts I can with what I have. I'm going to build the tender truck first and learn how to best make the parts and put some jigs together to form the bars, then do ...