The Home Machinist!

The Mil spec shipping containers we were required to use by NASA where I worked were purged and pressurized with Nitrogen to maximize the storage life of critical equipment.

Rob

The top row of taped holes I hand drilled and hand taped. It was a various tedious task not to break the tap. You can put a stop on the drill bit so it will not go in too far. I have done covers on two locomotives that had Allen Cylinders. I did not have to machine the inside of the head covers, sin...

Most male threads are a few thousands less than the nominal diameter when you measure them. Starting with that blank size will take a lot less force to turn the die. This is what I do for my hobby projects.

Rob

This is the brass covers I made, approximately .020" thick. Two screws underneath and row of number 2 model no. 2 model bolts along the top edge.

I had an Invicta for a couple of years. The previous owner had put a propane burner in it. It steamed well. The front had a fairly heavy bar on it. Not sure if it was built with it or added later by the first owner. It steamed quite well with propane. I would say if its level track it might pull up ...

There is 2 miles of 7 1/4" trak on this layout. The bridges, tunnels and tressels are amazing, as well as the all of the cuts and masonry work on the property. There is also a 2 foot gage rail road that is being expanded onto more acreage. The owner has two fantastic model scale train rooms as ...

If you decide to let a new engineer in training to operate your locomotive an axle pump is nice to have since the operation is much less intimidating than having to learn operation of an injector immediately.

Rob

I recomend putting the lathe in a location that give room to feed long bar stock thru the head stock. And also lots of clearance around both ends of the mill table to allow long items to hang off. I also recommend rubber flor mats, they not only make it easy on you but also protect work pieces and t...

Just some observations. One or more of the bushings may have been bored non concentric to oliviate the bind in the original build. The frame may have suffered some distortion due to derailments and during tramsport. Due all of the ovalness of the worn bushings and bores in the rods, the remaching ma...

I bought a partially completed locomotive and stayed with the x cross section o rings that were already done. After 2 1/2 seasons of limited use I think that they are having blow by. I hear it in the exhaust note at part throttle. The cylinders are cast iron from Allen Models. When I looked for repl...

I found a set of the 1/8" to 1/2" over and under reamers to be very helpful in making a lot of parts. I agree they are not ideal for wheel bores. I also found low cost set of the the blade type adjustable hank reamers to be useful for fine tuning and getting a nice bore finish on some items.

Why is the center a hex? I would think a round center would have less drag in the air and run for a longer time.

Rob