The Home Machinist!

What about sacrificing a couple standard 1/2" washers, sandwich the shim stock between them and turn the whole assembly do to the correct dimension? Just a welders 2 cents worth.

It appears to me that there is a sliding door on that caboose. What was it there for?

This is probably an oversimplification, but why can't a piece of 8" pipe (8.625") be cut by removing a 3.14" wide strip along it's length, and then massaged under a hydraulic press into the right diameter and the seam welded? Seems like this would be much easier than starting with fl...

As far as I know you can get pipe larger than 24" in A106. I believe it runs up to 48". Around here the pipe supplier that I deal with stocks pipe and fittings up to 24" beyond that is special order. As far as grade, I would think that if you could get your hands on grade A that would...

Has anyone used St52 Cold Drawn Hydraulic Cylinder tubing? Its also fertilizer grade medium pressure poiler tubing. The posted sizes and wall thicknesses are the relevant part of this alibaba link; http://noblesteel.en.alibaba.com/product/386758632-209929905/St35_8_St52_Seamless_Boiler_Steel_Tubes....

I have a few books from steel suppliers that list 7" pipe, but no one around here stocks it that I know of, (Now I know I'm not anywhere near you but...) A couple years back I enquired about a product listed in one of their books and asked if they had it or could get it in, their responce was, ...

Looking at the link that you posted I can't really tell you anything about it. If nothing else a respirator is your best friend. When you start dealing with high alloy content welding wires there is a lot of stuff in them that a person doesn't want to be inhaling. I don't know what you are using the...

My first job in the states, some 36 years back, was with a company that had a contract with NASA to maintain/calibrate/dustoff their electronic equipment. A plastic cover on a meter was a little milky and the senior tech showed me how toothpaste could restore the transparency. That is when I learne...

Marty and Glenn: Boiler looks great. Nice setup guys, clean and straight-forward. Dan: Bare boiler weight is about 400 lbs. All outer courses and sheets are 3/8" thick. Tube sheets, crownsheet, and inner side sheets are 1/4" thick. Jim Kreider One thing I've wondered about building model ...

If 'really great looking' to a lot of people is important then build a good inexpensive chasis and make several bodies options for it. Then you should be able to cover a wide variety of tastes. A little switcher, a stylized F7 nose or something along those lines and something to resemble a steam eng...

I have heard much talk of a 'recomended' IBLS coupler height chart many different places on the internet but have failed to find one. Does anyone know where a person could find it? I do already have the IBLS 'recomended Wheel Standareds chart.

Thanks,
Andrew