The Home Machinist!

Looking good Glenn. #50 or #60 chain?
I'm trying to understand that big top plate, you have room for that to pivot inside the box cab body?

Beautiful pieces, and good utilization of the high efficiency 3-phase brushless alternators/motors.
Food for thought, because I like R&D type work, fit a little centrifugal brake similar to that of an gas RC car clutch to prevent overspeed?

I'm building a backyard RR in 12" gage, 2" scale. The frogs are huge and mine have a pretty tight 40' radius. I ended up having the "slivers" laser cut and then welded my rails to them (using flat bar for rails).

Greg, there is another possibility.
I don't see balancing linkage between the two axles. If you were running the trailer nose or rear high, could have overloaded the front or back pair of tires. Still though, to split in the tread like that =crappy tires.

Greg, yes I've seen that before too. Poor quality Chinese rubber. It's really soft rubber too. The tires typically have a "fair" temperature rating, and leave black marks all over a parking lot when you turn. I'm not one to "plug" a particular manufacturer, but have had good luck with the Japanese m...

... Also don't some people use rated truck tires on trailers instead of "trailer tires"? The sources I've checked say that trailer tires are constructed differently from truck tires and you should not use one for the other. The forces on a trailer tire are different from those on a vehicle tire. On...

Another cheap option is to pick yourself up an older Station Wagon. A friend of mine towed his race car with a old Ford Wagon and loved it. He got it from a dealer super cheap, had low miles one owner as an elderly couple had traded it in on a new Expedition. It's lower profile got better mileage, w...

What kind of weight are we talking about Hoppercar? I know there is another thread on here with a "show and tell" with all the different stands/lifts people came up with. One member even had one that used a winch to lift vertically so he could stack multiple levels of rolling stock on racks in the g...

Hi, It's been a while since I've reviewed the meat of this thread and I have one concern. If we propose an IBLS axle diameter standard, could we be potentially setting up IBLS (and those advising IBLS) to some sort of liability? I see that Glen is thinking that it would contribute to safety, but th...

Having said that, once I needed a bunch of special length screws for some trucks. Anyone who has built trucks knows that you need a whole bunch of everything as there are eight journal boxes, etc. etc. So I made up a bit of angle iron with threaded holes that I could clamp in the bandsaw and slice ...

I can find these in the hardware store drawers where you can buy 1 at a time but not the more economical box where it's cheaper per screw. Am I likely to find 4-40 in a box? Whenever I go to the hardware store drawers, it seems like the one thing I want is the one space that's sold out. Sites like ...

I've created a first draft for a 12" Gauge Wheel Standard. Take a look. http://ibls.org/files/Standards/IBLS%20Wheel%20Standard%2012VS30%20Gauge.pdf This is based on the WF&P standard as published in Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading , Sep/Oct 2015. I welcome feedback. Just an update. I turned my ...