The Home Machinist!

With the loss of the Superpower Detail supplier of detail parts, the source for a NKP Berkshire number board has dried up. A great detail item for our scale steamers has once again vanished into places unknown. Therefore, to put in motion a new possible product in the future, one must go back in his...

As always, nice work.

Can we get a peek at the matching hasp just around the corner to the left of the door?

Curious minds need to know.

Robert

As Greg Lewis mentioned, Piping is the correct term for all the fittings and pipe or tubing on a locomotive. A have numerous Lima Locomotive Works orignal drawings and they always refer to the massive amount of fittings and pipe as piping on the drawing. I would suggest looking at a real locomotive ...

A gas lens option on a TIG torch is a way cool way to go. I found a see through Pyrex Cup gas lens for my air cooled torch at www.usaweld.com that is super to work with. It allows one to work with small parts and still see what is happening. Several friends had never seen a pyrex gas lens and quickl...

Dave, Nice example of a very creative method of using the Vee-block and clamp for holding the part in the mill vise. This is one of the reasons I like to see other shop setup events besides what I dream up because there are many ways to to get the job done in this hobby. Sometimes we see a much easi...

Nice job Dave. Did you use a air powered rivet hammer? To drive the drive screws, were they driven with an air hammer or some other source of driving force? On small parts I have used an angle lock vise to press home several drive rivets at the same time. Just used a sheet of copper to preserve the ...

Curtis, Many times in foundry practice, one can get lucky and attain good results when not using approved pattern design. Why tempt fate with going with too many thin and thick sections joining in the wrong places? One of the basics of foundry practice says that the adjoining casting sections should...

Yes, the tender can be just as much work as a locomotive. It is just more work until the whole project is done. I am currently rebuilding a locomotive and thought the tender portion of the rebuild would be easier, Wrong! I have found just as many little things to fix on the tender as on the engine. ...

I have a fiberglass USRA tender that has several coats of paint. The worst part of the situation is the paint is in some very deep cracks from damage prior to my ownership of the locomotive. I need to use a small spot blaster tool to clean up the cracks before using a filler material to level the su...

Well done Greg, you can work in the shop of Mathias Baldwin any time you want. Looks like you are going to need those End Block Spring Retainers in the near future. Do you have any idea what diameter of rod was used to make the containment rod for the spring retainer you observed at Bittercreek &...

There is also the "pick method" of Silver soldering where one melts a tiny bit of clean silver solder into a ball on a charcoal block. While still molten, a very sharp piece of stainless steel rod is inserted into the molten ball and the ball of silver solder freezes to the end of the poin...

I have included some images in regards to the Franklin Radial Buffer which was quite common on the larger steam locomotives built after 1915. Smaller locomotives had a simpler design but still served to keep the slack action between locomotive and tender to zero if all was in adjustment. Ten Wheeler...