The Home Machinist!

I have a pail of the Chevron W 460. It is emulsifying, but it does not contain real tallow. It uses a synthetic fat that won’t spoil.

I’ve thought about the anode, definitely something to keep in mind as well as the possibility of doing some home electro plating. But those are idea for down the road. And I think I’m going to keep the inside of the tank bare metal. Then there’s no coating to crack and let water get behind and eat t...

Looking good! It's great you were able to solder the plated steel, I wasn't sure how that was going to work as my "hot" experiences with zinc plated and galvanized steel have been less than wonderful. It wasn’t too hard as long as the heat was kept low. I used tinning flux and regular plumbing sold...

Work continues on the tank. The stand pipe for the siphon is now complete and attached as well as the siphon steam line plumbed. Both injector water connections are finished as well. Gaskets for both are made from some soft rubber used for toilet valves. The screws that hold the water line flanges a...

Those are some nice looking trucks! Definitely gonna keep an eye on this, I've been looking around for some MCB truck parts to do 2.5" Symington archbar trucks to go with the shay

Thank you it is Earl Muller, but it is a Mohawk not a Niagara. The only Niagara in 1.6 scale that I know of was Fred Bouffard’s, and another person that will be missed. Youre right, Earls is a Mohawk. I believe the late Pete Bialecki of Florida was building the Niagra down there, but I dont know th...

Finally have the tank where it'll hold water! Took two tests, the first one showed two of the vertical seams had pin holes but they were quickly fixed by reflowing the solder with some flux. After that the tank was filled to the brim and left for 20min, showing no signs of leaking. 01c346a074ca3e0b4...

I believe the gentleman in Florida would be Earl Muller. He has a beautiful 7.5” gauge oil burning Niagara

How about .200" diameter? So far no luck with McMaster, LocoParts, Blackgates, Stuart, etc. PM Research has 3/16" O.D. which is a bit too small. I'm still searching while also checking with friends. Many thanks, Bruce Try looking for metric tube then. 0.2” is kind of an odd size, but it’s almost ex...

No pictures tonight, but all of the side rivets are in and the bottom is held in place with some screws and nuts. One side didnt line up like I thought it was going to, but nothing a drill bit cant fix. I also need to drill the holes for the 3 sides of the coal bunker. In addition to that, I found t...

I am about to start the "solder sealing" step on the water legs of the tender I am building and wanted to know, do you use a big soldering iron or a torch for heat? I used a torch for heating. I use a butane micro torch for most stuff since it’s easier to control and keep from burning the flux, but...

Lots more rivets are set now, almost throw the first batch of 950 rivets with another 1000 on the way. The sides are almost done with just the upper row on the engineers side left to go. Then I’ll go in with flux and solder and seal up the vertical seams. Interestingly enough, I’ve found that tinnin...