The Home Machinist!

Hello My Friends Here is a start on the cylinder drains. Here we have a sketch of the main body of the drain. This part will be free machining brass. A couple cutters will be hand jived to make these drain valve bodies. Here a 1/4" hi speed lathe bit has been marked up with a sharpie and a circ...

Hello My Friends Thanks for the tips concerning water glass tubing. The water glass is finished, but I won't be mounting it until the cab floor is in place, and perhaps a back head wrapper. They used to use stay bolts with conical rivet heads in the old days. I like this feature. I't a minor one ,bu...

Hello My Friends
We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year. Hopefully Santa brought you something besides coal for your stocking. Although a stocking full of Welsh coal wouldn't be too bad.
Jack, Ginger, Martha, and Daisy.

Hello My Friends Thank you for the compliments and tips. I like Bill's idea of using the drill press, "now why didn't I think of that?". The ends definitely should be square. I have never tried fire polishing the ends. I'll have to give that a try also. I've been working on other things th...

Here the glass tube is having the end dressed on some #220 grit wet or dry with water. The water keeps the abrasive paper from loading up, and prevents the glass from heating and chipping. Try to get the end of the tube square as possible. Glass11.jpeg You can see the difference before and after dre...

Here the part is being metal finished with some #220 grit wet or dry paper and water. Metal finishing is very important. The parts were all given a second wet or dry zoom with #400 grit. Glass6.jpeg And now back to the mill again to spot the hole locations with a center drill. Glass7.jpeg Here the h...

Hello My Friends The turret is finished up and now it's time for a new water glass. The water glass that are with the engine was functionally OK but looked really jive. So some 5/8" round brass was put in the lathe and a 9/32" diameter recess was cut .156" deep with a brand new end mi...

Hello My Friends
You could definitely use hex stock with a washer.
Jack

Here the part has been clamped down in preparation for poking some holes. Turret6.jpeg Poking in progress. Turret7.jpeg Turret8.jpeg Now the vertical hole has been blasted. turret9.jpeg And here we have the cylinder silver soldered in place. This will eventually accept the banjo bolt that holds the ...

Now that the crossheads are finished up the steam turret needed some attention. The one provided with the engine was functionally OK, but esthetically... it had to go. I wanted something that looked like it belonged in a locomotive cab. Some 3/8" square brass from the stash, and some scribbles ...

Hello My Friends I was not really happy with how the crosshead wrist pins were set up. They were only held in place with a cotter pin. I wanted a wrist pin with a castellated nut. Here is the start of a nut. This is 3/8" diameter leaded stock. It has been drilled and tapped #10 x 40. Crosshead1...

Hello My Friends Here is some more progress on the little Mogul. There are a lot of parts to paint and here are some going for a swim in metal prep solution. The fenders, and boiler bands. These were originally left bright on the engine but they will be painted black. They were all very tarnished so...