The Home Machinist!

Are Jacks headlights ready for market? You will have to check with Jack, but a friend of mine just bought two of his Sunbeam Golden Glo headlights for his 1-1/2 inch scale Baldwin electric. This purchase was in the past three months. That's when I bought one of Jack's new Sunbeam angled number boar...

Dave Scalavi sold poling pockets at one time. The last ones I purchased from him were 5 or 6 years ago. Pretty nice too.

Jack Bodenmann is now building new Sunbeam Golden Glo headlights. They are museum pieces and railroad jewelry. They are delivered R-T-R, not kits. I have his headlights on my seven Baldwin electrics and just purchased (within the past three months) one of his Sunbeam headlights with angled number bo...

Vactra #2 is what we used on our big Cincinnati hydrotels when I was working doing forging dies.

In retirement, I use it on my home shop lathe and mill.

One of the best 3-jaw chucks available is the Buck Adjusta-Tru 3-jaw. Very pricey, but they can be made to be as accurate as you would want. Concentricity to within tenths! Look up Mr. Pete on Google and watch his YouTube all about Buck Adjusta-Tru 3-jaw chucks. He also gives quite a few tips on get...

I also had to turn the OD of the aluminum smokebox casting when I built my Allen ten-wheeler almost forty years ago. Depending on your experience and machining capability, this is how I did the job. Go ahead and machine the flats on the INSIDE of the smoke box halves and fasten these together. Then ...

Gary, I have the pattern for the wheels. I would have to get them cast as the 24 I just got from the foundry I am using. I will have to see what they cost. Ken Thank you Ken. Much appreciated. Tim Wheeler (above) just purchased an old Lew Soibelmann Project Baldwin a few months ago and I'm giving h...

I built one last winter and am presently building 3 more. I was able to obtain a set of plans from a friend. I made patterns for the journal boxes, wheels and bolsters. I also have the auto-cad drawings presently at the laser cutters doing 3 bodies for me with all the rivet holes laser cut along wi...

Why not have a "dual-boot" system and partition the drive? OR you could also use freeware called VM Ware, that will allow you to run your computer as two separate machines. The Virtual Machine software will still recognize the dongle and Rhino will run just like it always did. I use Master...

Gene was a true gentleman and one heck of a craftsman. Not many like him then or now.

There aren't many folks around who knew that Gene was the Chief Engineer on the WWII victory ship S.S. Lane Victory moored in Long Beach, CA and was deeply involved in the restoration of that ship's engines.

A member of Los Angeles Live Steamers now owns Doug Alkire's 5300 President Washington. This member brings the engine to the club anytime there is a 1" scale "Steam Meet". STILL a beautiful model after all these years....very well maintained .

Christopher, I buy all my rivets (for my 1-1/2 inch stuff) from Hansen Rivet in Pacoima (local to both of us). The smallest solid rivet they carry is 1/16 in diameter with a .101-.122 diameter round heat and about .045 high (copper or steel. Should be pretty close for a 1" scale tanker. Painted...