The Home Machinist!

It's an old thread but I read this and the archive when I was trailer shopping so I'll add to the discussion. Up to shopping for an enclosed trailer my dad and I had carried eight cars in a utility trailer with a tarp fitted over the cars. Three cars were stacked on another and two rolled in on thei...

There is nothing wrong with having a hand pump if it supplements other a couple other means of adding water. I wouldn't add one in lieu of getting your axle pump and injector working.

You don't need CNC, you might want it but you don't need it. We're modeling machines build before CNC was even a distant idea. I've often looked at photos from the locomotive builder in the early 1900's and remarked at the work they did with the tools they had. I've wondered if you could assemble a ...

Mine opens to the right. No issues with it swings closed as long as I open it all the way. For the model it really depends on how the cab and back head are laid out.

My first thought was a bear trap spark arrester like the Denver and Rio Grande used to use on their narrow gauge locomotives. Looking at pictures of the same locomotives in modern times they are using a simple screen with a couple differences. The screen is larger diameter than the stack giving an a...

The decals are water slide. The lettering is holding up o.k. but the two color heralds have cracked and started to lift at the cracks. What I've read on a model airplane forums is when the film has started to crack the backing is also loosening and will break up when it's wetted again. I'm consideri...

I recall a discussion on preserving old paint but can't find it. Here's what I have 1) I have a Rittenberg hopper dating from the 60's. It's in the original paint with hand lettering. It's taken on a nice patina. The paint has dulled. There is just a touch of white chalking trailing down from the le...

From my observation and time as a club boiler inspector, most failures are due to corrosion. There are at least a couple threads about proper care, one just recently. True anyone can buy a locomotive. But most are serious about owning and operating the locomotive and seek out the information they ne...

What actually happens when one of these small boilers fails? Let's say it was a 516-70 steel boiler with, let's say poor welds that cracked. A poorly welded Ø8.25" steel boiler made with schedule 20 (.250 thick) for a 1/8th sized consolidation - (not a large locomotive). It cracked at a most vulner...

The firebox on my dad's gave out after the first year or so. The second one he built was stainless steel with a flange around the top and bottom to stiffen the sides. To create a feed water heater he wound the feed line around the fire box a few times and packed it with furnace cement. We made it a ...

Grey iron rounds and heavy wall tubes are readily available. I have a Pacific that went on the road in 1992 with fabricated cylinders. The cylinders are made from a heavy wall grey iron round. The valve chambers have a bronze liner. Both the piston and valve spools are sealed with iron piston rings ...

Juggling between machines I do it on occasion but not often. It was attractive at first but what I found was if I put too much emphasis on running two machine, I one didn’t pay enough attention to what I was doing on one of them. Once in a while the situation lends itself to running two machine but ...