The Home Machinist!

Tom,

Thank you very much! I was worn out from work last night, I'd ass-u-me'd you were posting drawings of typical swing link trucks. I don't know where you got those, but thank you!


R

Bill, Sorry, I wanted to ask - are you thinning the ID or the OD of the Otto rings? I think you mean ID, but want to be sure. Being a bit off center, you'd end up with the "elliptical" inner profile, which is better. I just watched a video last night of a couple of British chaps "knoc...

My drawings are done for me to understand and get to a place where I can go out in the shop and build it once. So, no, they aren't beautiful. And I think I lost some data when I figured out I had two duplicate files and had to pick one. If someone wanted to dig into the archives in Quebec and find t...

Harold, Thanks. I have the info on how to make rings, I was trying to avoid building all the fixtures to just do two pistons, but it may come to that. I got the rings from Otto based on recommendations I found here, told the man I was going to use them for steam, he said something to the effect of &...

Cut down some Allen Mogul valves I had. Trying to stick a little closer to Porter practice with the gland and valve stem. I learned something - the "valve packing" they sell at the big box store has rubber in it. Seals well, but when exposed to oil it turns into a black gummy mess. Going t...

So everything seemed to center on the cylinder saddle. Cylinders/steam chest, pilot truck running gear, etc. Gents, I think I am past that hurdle! I made the portion of the frame that holds all this a separate section. I'm thinking I may try to make some taper bolts - learned about those on the litt...

In 12" = 1'-0" scale, it's not unknown to fill the boiler with water then build a *small* fire to heat the water and expand it.

Bob, I am not sure I understand your middle paragraph. You mention superheat, which may be the part I am missing. The steam tables tell me that saturated steam can only exist at certain relationships between pressure and temperature. Steam at 100 psi is going to be at 328psi. Steam at 50 psi is goin...

Long time ago, I worked with an outfit that did surveying in Texas. Due to legal requirements, some properties had to be measured in Varas, because that's what the Spanish had used for land grants. And of course, now, the vara is defined by a metric measurement. https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-mea...

Bill, I'm curious, were your cylinder sets made of cast arn or bronze?

Update: The experiments with silver solder for joining the steam chest and cylinder are over. I got ahold of some silver solder containing nickel and manganese, BAg-22, same as what the article I had read described. It worked really well on joining (2) 1" x 2" x 1/4" cast iron coupons...

The thing about tall and skinny - if you consider that the top of the beam is in compression and wants to be longer, and the bottom is in tension and wants to be shorter, the easiest way for the beam to do this is turn sideways, AKA "buckle". I used to know how to figure that. And yes, woo...