The Home Machinist!

Looking awesome! What are the different materials that the castings are made of?

On a 1.5" scale engine plans call for Phosphor Bronze to make the axle boxes out of. I can't find bar stock of phosphor bronze anywhere (much less small quantities). I was wondering if it was even used still with ball bearings available. Any help would be great! Thanks!

Awesome work. What material did you make the new tires out of? Cut of out plate?

I did get to the bottom of the green sand problem. I didn't get to try the water method but I will next time I have any doubt. I put some wet sand on a metal plate and let it dry. Then I wiped away the sand hoping I'd see the clay still stuck to the metal. It had a very faint haze on it. I figured t...

On Charles Dockstader's website he calls his Calculator/Computer "Valve Gear on the Computer". Hence, Charlesd VGC.

Hello, I have a question regarding green sand. I ordered 30lbs of premixed sand off ebay. I wanted to do it myself but I couldn't source a fine enough sand or bentonite clay. Plus it was convenient and saved me time. I got the sand and they also included extra bentonite to "refresh" the sa...

Update I think its finished unless I overlooked something. I had to tweak some things. Like you suggested Baggo. Also I tweaked some of my own. So as it stand now VGC shows correct Lap and Lead. A cuttoff of 81.6 to 81.8 at full forward gear. (Goal was 81.85.) And a cuttoff at .1/.1 at center. I th...

UPDATE Baggo, the link to Dan Ashtons has helped so much thank you! I believe I have 95% of the valve gear correct now. My current problem is in the valve movement itself. With the spread sheet from Don Ashtons site shows correct calculations for what I came up with. Cutoff: 81.85% or 82% Valve Tra...

I'm making a Walschaerts Valve Gear for a narrow gauge 1:20.3 model. I have took a lot of time to try to get the working proportions and keep it as close to prototype as possible. For example using a drop link, and locating the reversing arm in the correct location. I've had some success but I'm sti...

I for one am very glad you posted this. I had no idea. I don't weld but I use brake clean every day. I go though several cans a week at work. Also some other guys at work do the same. We don't weld around it but I know we've heated tooling with a heat gun and then sprayed the parts with brake clean ...