The Home Machinist!

I have followed the Future of 3/4" scale thread with great interest and have a suggestion for potential builders. I am going to suggest that you consider a steel boiler for your small locomotive. Given reasonable care and proper water treatment a steel boiler can last for 30 years or more. If y...

Congratulations, Fred! Looks good! What wheel arrangment is it? It looks like you have a footwell.

The first article I wrote for Live Steam Magazine was on washing your boiler. I have an update I'm working on. The recommendation I made is for the final blowdown when you're finished running. Blowing down while running is to control TDS (Total Dissolved Solids" and is an integral part of your ...

Full size practice is to let the boiler cool down so that there is no pressure and the metal temperature is between 100 and 120 degrees F. Blowing down with the metal warmer risks baking the scale to the sheets. This is right out of the ASME Recommended Practice. I don't have my copy at hand, it's o...

I'm celebrating as well as Don!

Besides building boilers I am working on getting my 1 1/2" scale Pennsy A5 0-4-0 in service. This one of a group of six that Dan Culp was building. Part of this is converting from 7 1/4" gauge to 7 1/2". Andy Pullen is turning a set of steel tires for me to shrink on the original whee...

I am having the same problems as Don Orr with the Locoparts website. Gee, do you think being on the same server and having the same webmaster has anything to do with it? I hope the problems are only temporary.

Every real locomotive I worked on had the blower run outside the boiler and outside the lagging. The valve is right in front of the fireman. There is usually a connection right by the smokebox to connect to house steam or compressed air for firing up. Don't forget to drain the condensate!

Dave - No, he hasn't got it back yet. Why do you think he told me to go weld some copper?

Bill, I believe we're both graduates of DuPont U. But I don't think either one of us stayed long enough to get the oval tatoo!

Com'on, guys, you're giving away all my 'secrets'! Seriously, though, with the right equipment and proper procedures, rolling tubes is painless. The first point is that the hole should be round. They don't need to be particularly smooth - it's more important they truly are circular. I will drill the...

Thanks for posting those pictures, Mark. A friend asked me yesterday if anyone had built a live steam model of the Uintah 2-6-6-2T's, and I told him about Ross's.