The Home Machinist!

I spent a considerable amount of time typing a response until I found online a conflicting answer from what I had been told by a lawyer, so now I'm in a gray area here, and I'll keep it simple. I was of very strong opinion that a CAD model is not a derivative work of a 2D line drawing. It is an enti...

Short of cobbling out of a billet of aluminum does anyone have a source for the stack on the prototype in 1-1/2" scale? I have long considered making and selling a few interchangeable variation parts for the Allen engines. My ten-wheeler came with a custom diamond-stack and different, older-st...

Working on a Northern project, and I could use a large tender for it. Eventually I'm going to build the proper Centipede tender, but that's a long and arduous task; I'd like to have it running this decade. Just though I'd put a feeler out there. Looking for the following: - 7.5" gauge Northern-...

One pair of pre-owned Mogul-to-Ten-Wheeler frame extensions. Needs machining, and should fit an Allen Mogul. http://i.imgur.com/LlWiw0M.jpg http://i.imgur.com/PdEdKny.jpg http://i.imgur.com/JuoMpw2.jpg Asking $75 o.b.o. Located in San Jose, CA. Pick them up for free, or they should fit in USPS flat ...

It can be done. Gather lots of photos and do research on similar locos built by the same builder. I'm in the process of planning a build now so I am in a similar situation. One thing I would suggest is to make a list of all unnecessary refinements that you will NOT have to incorporate into the desi...

Just FYI, Wayne Godshall obtained the all the patterns from Railroad Supply. Contact him as he may have the dome castings that your looking for. Dale I'm going to assume this is referring to Railroad Warehouse , the company in Nevada that used to offer the 90-ton Mike, which has been in the process...

The boiler is a tapered/wagon top Allen boiler, ~8 5/8" (stock dia.) up front and only slightly larger diameter at steam dome, probably ~8 7/8" or maybe 9"

I'm looking for a turn-of-the-century style steam dome and sand dome for my Allen Ten Wheeler that's backdated a little to around an 1890s appearance. I randomly saw a picture on the Chula Vista Live steamers of an engine that has exactly what I'm looking for. http://i.imgur.com/uQbbvF7.png These lo...

I'm about to plumb up my Locoparts steam ejector. From what I understand, it just needs steam pressure to operate. I'm curious about what kind of valve people use with ejectors, and how much regulation / throttling of said valve would control vacuum and braking force. (Can they be throttled?) I figu...

I'm still relatively new to piping a locomotive, and I'm having problems with a soldered superscale fitting. I soldered a small 1/4" copper tube to a 1/4" SuperScale manifold valve tailpiece (basically a union). Prior to soldering, I accidentally crimped the copper end a tad so the tube wa...

I am trying to remove a very small pipe adapter that went between my ten-wheeler boiler and the check valve. The check came off no problem, but the adapter is very, very stuck inside the boiler. It looks to be about 1/4 NPT, but the stock was not hexagonal. I think it was either octagonal or even mo...

Cool to see what everyone else has done. Also cool to see another NX user here. You know who you are! I'm curious as to the reason for a cleaner finish in spots. I would think for any surfaces that will mate to something else, they would get machined and the native cut surface finish wouldn't matter...