The Home Machinist!

Not often do the products on YouTube make such a wonderful impression. Refreshing to see such original craftsmanship in action. With some more training in alchemy, you will be able to turn straw into gold!

Robert

Railroad Supply was never big on tender brakes with the smaller locomotives. During the build of a RRSC Mogul the prints for the tender trucks did include brakes. When made the tender truck brake system parts did not play well together and would not work until many revisions were incorporated. Worse...

Over ten years ago we elected to use some Delrin AF to make hub liners for a full size steamer at the museum where I work. Of course there were the usual naysayers who complained that this is not the way we have always done it. A few more, cognizant of modern industrial materials decided that there ...

At one time there was a 1 inch or 3/4 inch cab forward at GGLS that was set up to run tender forward as the engineer rode a riding car next to the cab. Somewhere in the 1984-1985 time frame, I was looking at the locomotive collection in a dark wine cellar near Hollister owned by a guy named Barry Bi...

Jack,

What sort of grey goop is used to form the exterior of the elbow.

A wax and mold room, sounds most interesting!

Robert

Looks like a tabby cat bonus option with the set of castings.

The house valves were used to vent any steam leaked to the valve chambers by a less than perfect throttle valve seat. Most double seated dome throttle valves were notorious for leaking as to lap them into a perfect sealing condition was an art form and very time consuming. Most shops did not have th...

Jack, Incredible work on the dummy booster. I have wanted to make a dummy booster in 1.5 scale for a long time, but the prints with accurate dimensions have eluded me for several reasons out of my control. Lots of line drawings to be found, but the drawings will full dimensions are what is needed or...

Asteamhead, Thank you for the steam valve response. I use some of the same tricks in full size steam valves to prevent the all too common leaks all over the cab. I was thinking that the same tricks might be applied to our scale model steam valves and you have already set the standard for the model v...

I notice what appears to be a roll of Teflon tape in the image with the disassembled Cole's valve. Is the tape what you are using for the packing material? Did you make a new packing bushing to fit the enlarged packing area of the valve bonnet? Did you make the disk of the valve stem so it was back ...

Timesaver arrives in a metal can not unlike a stand paint can. Inside is a yellow powder the likeness of powdered sugar. Mix a small amount of the yellow powder with a thin oil, apply the oil powder paste to the part surfaces and with a small amount of pressure, continue to rotate the parts until a ...

Try some extra fine Timesaver lapping compound for soft metals like bronze. Much easier to use a cordless drill to drive the disk body against the seat for faster results. I have found that whistle valve seats and disks do not often play well together when cold. Once heated up on steam, often times ...