The Home Machinist!

I have had Proxxon machines, and in my opinion they are for hobbyists like HO or O gaugers, not machinists. Nicely made, but at under $400 you may be expecting too much. If you want well built machines try Servo or the other types used in industry. I picked up my Servo off of eBay a decade ago, used...

Here is a great book on measurement, I highly recommend it. It even has units like Twaddell in it. Did you know the Cubit ran from 17.48 inches to 25.24 inches depending on which middle east country you measured in? As Physics Department Chairman, I bought each teacher a copy. Whether they actually ...

When I cast those tender truck, the tender waterbed, and other parts from foam patterns, I used a lot of Sodium Silicate treated sand. The flask was entirely filled with that sand. Of course, as an amateur, I had no why to recover that sand, it was worth the price! I have used ceramic slurry also, a...

I cast my own. The photos below are of the styrofoam pattern I made and then of the cast truck, done in A356 aluminum. It requires making a foam pattern for every part needed including the iron wheels, the white stuff on the right is yet to be poured journal boxes. Got the drawings from the N&W Hist...

Many decades ago we tried a sample track. It was ~ 60 feet of aluminum rail with wood ties cut to scale, and treated with what was available in those early 60's. We used pea gravel for ballast, looked good, but when we finally got back to actually building the RR in the late 90's we went a different...

Here is what I cast for rods of a 4-8-4. I used C99700 which Kramer calls White Tombasil, which should do the job. It is not cheap, but it is easy to pour, machines easily and takes a nice finish, and the specs look like they will work. The Ceramic Slurry Investment Process I did over at the Art Dep...

Here is an old movie where they show making Gamit bearings about 16 minutes into the movie; should be of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQaAKUAzK0w

My 1994 Harrison VS330TR has Gamit Bearings below are the inspection sheets.

Here is some information: https://www.riogrande.com/searchresults#q=tumbling%20media&t=products&sort=relevancy&layout=card&numberOfResults=36 https://www.riogrande.com/searchresults#q=tumbling%20machine&t=products&sort=relevancy&layout=card&numberOfResults=36 https://www.riogrande.com/searchresults#...

Why back, when EMD switched to CAD, they gave my high school a number of Drafting Machines. Most were too big to be used by the Mechanical Drawing Department, and the Department Chairman Bill P., knowing I was a scroonger of anything, let me have some; they were still in original boxes. I put one on...

If you read back to my posts over many years, you will find that I taught Physics at a technical high school, casting metals has been my hobby since I melted Type Metal over the kitchen stove as a kid. I was fortunate to be at the school while there were all kinds of shops I could use, including Fou...

I use facing sand made of S.S. treated sand when I consider the type of pattern I'm using. In the photo bellow, I will come and put a layer of S.S. on top the pattern about one inch thick, harden the sand, and then add Petrobond 2 sand to fill up this drag. Because the S.S. protects the pattern, I c...

I have been casting metals, and using the sodium silicate CO2 system since the 1970's. Made hundreds of pounds of the stuff, I used it for facing, cores, and full molding. The first thing, is to find a foundry supply company that has the foundry designated S.S., the ADCOSIL I use is no longer availa...