The Home Machinist!

[snip] On a side note why the heck are you using BA threads? Perhaps because he's located in the UK? It shouldn't drive anyone crazy. It's like when I had my first car, a 1953 MG, and NO one would work on it . . . 'cause it was METRIC! But actually it wasn't Metric, but all the mechanics had in the...

How about installing a central 1-Shot lube system? Push (or pull) the plunger a couple of times and be lubed for the day. If you have stems you're half-way there.

Some of us (like me) just can't pass up a joke.
I could never get past thinking what fertile ground Miracle Products was for sale slogans like . . ."If it sticks it's a Miracle."
You can see where this might lead.

Especially living in an area such as St.Louis I would start calling around to not only suppliers but also pipe fitting, fire suppression and other places that might have a few feet of left over sitting around. Years ago it wasn't this way, but the problem with that these days, in my experience, has...

Rings in a steam engine should NOT attempt to center the piston. [snip] rings should have enough clearance at the root diameter that they can NOT influence the piston. H Re: my question . . I learned yesterday that it doesn't matter greatly if the ring can be pressed below the surface of the piston...

I've just been sent a photo of a note from the Mfg of my rings (Clupet, UK), and for a ring identical to mine they quote a .071"-.074" deep groove for a 1/16" thick ring, which is gives an .009"-.012" clearance. That seems quite a lot to me. I can't judge whether this is too...

Here's another question to add to this thread . . . what are you using for clearance (float?) between the ring ID and bottom of the ring groove? I can't recall what I've used in the past, and I no longer have the drawings anyway. The pistons in this case are 1.625" OD cast iron, w/cast iron rin...

That's exactly what I do Rich, using an edge finder. Detect R & L OD edges on the X-axis, and R & L OD edges on the Y-axis, divide the spread, Zero the DRO each way, and I'm done. Something you've said made me realize that after the OD indicating process I've never indicated the center hole ...

Atkinson_Railroad wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 5:12 amI’m recalling the ‘80s song declaring “…video killed the DJ.”

It's actually Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. It's also one of my favorite early 80's songs . . . I can't explain why, it just is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUgF49Rtg7Q

There are some beautiful British traction engines, works of art, and usually cared for like art. The Allchin happens to be my favorite, and is also perhaps the commonest and simplest, but Fowler, Avelling, Burrell, Foster, and Ransoms are others. The attached photo of an Allchin is 3" scale, an...

The problem these days is that even basic cameras, and phones, produce image files which are WAY too hi-Rez for anything but commercial graphics. I regularly have to tell my friends, don't send me a 14Mb photo of your bird, I'm not National Geographic, 140kb will do just fine. I'm also regularly ign...

Some years ago (for an unrelated project) I bought some adhesive-backed plastic strip which is .380"± wide, 068"± thick, clear, very dense, and very slippery, but not "soapy "slippery (like Teflon.) I have no idea now what plastic the material is, but if you'd like to give it a t...