The Home Machinist!

This summer I was pressed for time so I built a set of Van Brocklin automatic cylinder drains for my Climax. They are similar to the design on the IBLS web site referenced above. According to Van Brocklin: "In operation, the throttle is opened slowly to work all the condensate out of the cylind...

July 1987 Live Steam has the article.

Here's a photo of the Climax tender bottom showing the PVC bushings that are glued to the bottom of the PVC tank liner. The brass fittings are from Home Depot. The lower line has a filter screen and is for the injector. The three lines above that are for the axle pump feed, axle pump return and stea...

I made one stainless steel tender body. Never again. Too hard to work with. A lot of TIG welding, too. I have since made four or five tender liners from PVC. Easy. The key is to buy PVC angles from McMaster-Carr to go with the 1/8" thick PVC sheet. Clean all joints with PVC cleaner and use regu...

One could 3D print a non-functional glad hand and put it in the middle of the hose. It would need a hole to pass air through. Or better: cast the non-functional glad hand in bronze to have a little weight to pull the hoses down. Timely info as I am about to add air brakes to my cars. No, not the sam...

Very neat work on the exterior. From your photos on Facebook the internal work is just as impressive.
-Larry

My cylinder block is a steel fabrication. When I decided on this locomotive design I couldn't find a casting that was anywhere close to what I needed. Dick- Nice work on the cylinder block fabrication. Do you have any photos as you were welding it? Interested to see the steam passage fabrication me...

Leak Lock web site states it is good to 400 degrees F. No problem so far. I got pointed to Leak Lock by previous postings here on Chaski. Here is their web site:http://www.highsidechem.com/leaklock.html Small tubes can be bought on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/10001-Leak-Lock-1-1-tube/dp/B00009W5HW...

After piping a couple of locomotives I came to the conclusion that the best way to eliminate leaks was to silver solder as many fittings as possible, using unions liberally so that whole sections of piping could be removed as a unit. Result: no more leaks. I use slip fit, straight thread, or mtp as ...

I agree with Bill. I am about to make the mechanical linkage for my Climax cylinder cocks and have decided that I want the forward position of the control (which looks like like a short Johnson Bar without notches) to be the running position or closed. Rear would be open. That way if I am shovelling...

Thanks for the link. There are some very nice photo collections there. I especially liked the New Haven photos.
-Larry

Price lowered to $50 + $6.40 shipping for all. ***SOLD***