The Home Machinist!

Hardened steel tools are nice and are certainly wear and abuse resistant. However, the hardening will not contribute to the stiffness or vibration resistance of that tool. All common steels have a modulus of elasticity (Young's modulus or 'E') of very close to 30 million psi. It does not matter what...

Back in 1976 we bought our first house and, of course, it needed updating and repairs. Lots of repairs! In due course my wife wanted a new kitchen sink faucet, one of those new-fangled single lever types. She picked the one she liked and we drug it home. In the installation instructions it was claim...

I really like this idea -> but have you looked at the $$$ for these square head set screws? Sure...they are only $3.50 each, but when you have 20+ holders with 4 screws in each....best part of $300 worth of screws any more flea market buckets around? That's a ridiculous price! Before I found that (...

If I may make a suggestion here. Please install a few prototypes of the teflon seat check valves on a locomotive and give them a good trial run with differing feed water and contamination of the water. Having had some experience on a full sized steam boat with teflon seat boiler feed check valve, I ...

Sharpening a tap by hand is only worthwhile in an emergency. If you have many holes to tap get a new one. The time spent in removing a broken tap from a valuable work piece is much more than the cost of a new tap. Some tap modifications can be done in the shop: Making a taper tap into a plug or bott...

I have a weed burner and I seem to recall that its package claimed 500,000 BTU output. In use it appeared pretty thirsty with a 20 lb propane bottle. Unfortunately that is all the information I can furnish on this. Here is a snippet of information for the experimenters. Before I took ol' 2888 to the...

If the fire door is big enough, try it with a weed burner.
Mind you, your steam engine will sound like a jet engine at take-off!

My 3 1/2" scale Canadian Pacific Hudson, ol' #2888, is kept in my nice work shop under cover.
I "undress" her now and again and fondle her to both our enjoyment.

She does need some surgery on her pumps and check valves; priorities, priorities...

I replaced all the 1/4" socket head cap screws on my quick-change tooling with 1/4" square headed set screws. I found a tin can full of these at a flea market. And used a 1/4" socket extension rod as the basis for the wrench. No more picking swarf out of screw sockets! The set screws ...

On YouTube are several videos by an individual in Europe who built proper model Diesel engines, including injection pumps and injectors. The author goes into some detail into these two components, but will not discuss how he made them. A skilled machinist ought to be able to build a functioning engi...

Just a thought. Check how concentric your cutter is running. If it is .002" TIR, it means it runs eccentric by .001", which would increase the chip per tooth to twice the .001" you are using, on one tooth! Further, unless you have a rigid setup, back off on the spindle speed. I'd use ...

My Emco Maier V 10 P lathe is mounted on a 2" x 8" hollow structural steel (HSS, not to be confused with hss tool bits!) section. For the 8 mounting holes for the levelling pads I brazed steel bushings into said section, that penetrate from top to bottom and are thus brazed to the top and ...