The Home Machinist!

Exposed to open flame these things burn up like a piece of coal, do any of you know a source for small ( a half pound or less capacity ) silicon carbide or clay graphite crucibles? Every now and then I want a small casting and don't want to fire up the big crucible furnace for just one item, a small...

Thanks Harold, when everything cooled down yesterday I inspected and measured the crucible, the wall thickness was reduced to half the original dimension, I was wondering why the walls were so thick on the new crucibles. Well, the two that I bought cost me $12.00 each and served their purpose, but I...

I needed to make a few very small castings to complete a project and didn't want to fire up the big crucible furnace so I purchased two very small graphite crucibles and melted the metal I needed in my small heat treating furnace. Everything went well so I did another small pour today, I made three ...

Hi Dan, I don't think it will be on my engine for the Labor Day run (no valve), but I'll try to get it on soon after. See you at the club. John

I couldn't find a place on my 1" Atlantic, or tender, to hide the Mintz whistle; so I gave the whistle Nelson describes in his book a try, and it turned out pretty well with good tone on air (haven't tried it on steam yet). I did the best I could to disguise it as an air tank, I think once it g...

Does anyone know about or have a manual for a Haskins power tapping machine, model 611? I certainly didn't need it but the price was right and I brought it home. It appears to have a lot of features mechanical, electrical and pneumatic, any help will be appreciated. John

Success! It works like charm David, thanks! John

There's no set screw on my valve that I can see, the shaft and handle hole are square, possibly the handle base is threaded and jambs up to the shaft to act as a set screw, don't know. This valve came with an old boiler, cab and smoke box that I bought, I always thought it was a brake valve until on...

Is this the valve that you are looking for?
Unfortunately I don't have the drawing, if no one else has the drawing either, I'll take the valve apart and sketch it up for you.

My alignment issues may stem from me welding the lower part of the stand rather than bolting it. I bolted the top cross bar so that I could install and remove the rising blocks, but as I said the lower part was welded. I'll let you know how everything works when I clamp on an engine. Thanks David. J...

David, I have my two rotisserie stands completed except for the custom mounting brackets, now I found that when I mount them face to face on my work table they are not perfectly plumb, the tops are about 1/8" farther apart than the bottoms; easy enough to shim, but I didn't allow that much play...

Attached is a photo of the culprit, it's a worm gear that I want to attach to one end of an engine rotisserie that I'm making so that I have control with a load on it. I basically used GlennW's approach, two holes are tapped, one hole was plunge cut to 3/8" diameter with a pin installed as it w...