The Home Machinist!

i just started so i don't have any history but everyone i've talked to swears by it. some claim their boiler steams better but that would be hard to tell i would think.
fred v

what did the rod measure? back to back or outside the flange?
fred v

i've been running some numbers on my new project. i have the total volumn of cylinders based on running at 6 MPH. so i need 12,000 cu. ft. of steam/hour. i looked at the steam tables and they say at 100 lb. pressure 3.9 cu. ft. of steam weighs .25 lb. so are you saying that 8lb. of steam will have a...

my mentor used soluble oil as a boiler treatment. he added it to his last tender full at the end of the run. htere was an article in LS about using it. i have been using it too, upuntil this year. it does cause some foaming but is good for the water tank to prevent rust. i looked into my boiler abou...

when building my first engine i had a hard time trying to figure out where the 7& 7/16" dimension should fall as it looked like it falls somewhere on the radius between the tire and flange. it finally dawned on me that the thing to do is machine the axle so the back to back dimension is cor...

what did you decide to do about a lead truck?
fred v

there was an article in LS a few years ago where he recomended putting diesel oil in the boiler as a treatment. it should cause no harm.
when my engine primes i always open the cyl. drains to keep water from coming out the stack.
fred v

nice job Jim
what scale and engine type is it?
fred v

I don't even think I've even ever seen a mill cert for a piece of material. The only supplier I've been referred to had nothing in their remnant stock in the way of carbon steel. If I need 30" of 8" certified pipe/tubing and the minimum purchase is 10', can I pass along the mill cert on p...

Marty, do you have any rules of thumb for design? by that i mean how much heating surface for a given bore/stroke/wheel dia. etc. i have never found any discussion on this subject and it would be most helpful for freelance designing to know what i'm doing.
thanks,
fred v

it seems like everyone here uses copper tubes in steel boilers. while in the UK they use steel tubes. i saw a boiler there taken apart for new flues. copper was used originally. the tube sheets were eroded around each tube like you wouldn't believe. it is their claim that copper and steel create a g...

Will, it looka to me like your design would work just as shown without the red spots. the guard rails can be quite close to the main rail as the flange is only 5/32" wide. the wheel should pass right through the frog if the tolerances are held tight.
fred v