The Home Machinist!

what's the difference between delrin and nylatron?

my good friend, the late r.f. wilson, charter member of the mid south live steamers, built the boiler for my allen mogul way back in 1981. he suggested and we used 3/16 inch plate for the fire box material. his reasoning was the same as yours. heat transfer. 1/4 inch plate used every other place. it...

what about brass parker flare fittings? we used large quantities of them in all sizes where i used to work. i got them used from when they would replumb the gas and oxygen lines on the lamp making machinery. i never bought new stuff. what i liked about them was that they used a ferrulle in between t...

raymbo; thank you very much. i'll remember that. i might try air sometime. use a small battery powered compressor along with a tank, then, run a line all the way to your back car, thereby applying the brakes to the last car first and then working it's way toward the front. supposedly, this would kee...

back in 2003, i built up six set of the allen arch bar trucks. i was asked to see if i could install brakes on them. at that time i didn't know much about the tom bee products, so i went with the mcr brake sets. i knew about the truck sets, as i had built up about eight sets of them for a friend her...

to raymbo: your comment "if it isn't one thing it's another" is appropriate. i remember the old little engine's catalogue telling it's readers that by building their engine kits that it would make you into a better person and would prepare you for an better life, or words to that effect. m...

true enough, the paint will go south after a few years of running, but when that happens, remove plate, soak in paint remover, scrub with your wife's toothbrush, clean same and return it to the bathroom. maybe she won't notice. rinse plate thoroughly and let dry. spray with a high temp paint of your...

where is this rough and tumble show located?

in all the moguls and ten wheelers that i have been involved with building, i have used the smoke box throttle. i have found it to be very trouble free in it's operation. i used the casting on the first two engines and then i started carving them out of a piece of brass bar stock. the first one that...

ray; your post about the mogul frame made me think about an experience i had a few years back. i had just built and equipped a shop in my back yard and i needed a project, so i ordered an allen mogul kit. i think that was the time i called gene at 5 in the morning thinking it was 9 in the morning. f...

i gave out some wrong info when i said the front and rear wheel sets were the same. i forgot that gene called for two differently machined crank pins. if that's the case then you can't pull off that trick. my bad. the first mogul that was built for me by the late r. f. wilson of the wilson locomotiv...

why not swap the rear axle with the front axle. they are the same. true enough, it's going to require major surgery on your locomotive, but your front axle drivers may be pressed on a bit tighter. worth a thought, maybe. i had something similiar happen to me on a mogul that i built about 13 years ag...