The Home Machinist!

Tristan, what about finding A285C? It may be just as difficult to find but its an option.

John, when you welded the front flue sheet, did you use an open root for the first pass?

Marty, how much space is there between the top of the grate and the bottom for the fire ring?

it may be easier to just talk to your local fab shop. hydraulic brakes are common in large shops and the men who run them are rather good at what they do. a $20 bill and a 6 pack will go a long way if you go at the right time of day.I had a keyhole crown sheet made of 1/4 sheet on a brake during lun...

I like 2.5 ! If you have spent much time on a small engine it becomes clear " we ain't getting no younger" Small engines require reaching forward , and it can be hard on the back( it gets worse for the engineer who enjoys a cheeseburger or two). Narrow gauge engines have larger cabs and te...

Call Mr. Poole at Plum Cove , the little box cab is the most fun you can have without a shovel in your hand. They will pull two adult and engineer up 2% . If you can get past it not having a gas engine it's worth a look.

You could do what the RR did and use whatever is cheap. it all burns off the smoke box sooner than you would like. My experience with traction engines is ,it may be just as easy to repaint with cheap stuff than spend the money and prep work to use high temp paint. At any rate let us know what you us...

Spro , your guess is as good as mine. One would think if the gears are correct, everything else would be correct. I have be scratching my head about this since I bought the lathe. Three thou per revolution is about half of what is use for a roughing cut and about twice as fast as a finishing cut. Wh...

Well today I got off my butt and put an indicator on the carriage of a SB 9a and the Hendey .Using 80 tpi I found that the carriage travel on both lathes is the same using the lead screw( approx. 12 thou). So I know my drivetrain is correct. Then I locked the feed clutch and turned the chuck by hand...

I bought a 4" three and four jaw chuck from Wholesale Tool because that was all I could afford , and well I got what I paid for. They work OK as long as you are aware of the short comings and plan ahead. If you can find a collet set you might be better off in the long run, just keep the chuck y...

Thanks for the tip, I have creeped around PM a little but don't really enjoy it like this site because it is so commercialized . Thank you to the creators of Home Machinist for keeping thing just the way they are!

I am trying to make contact with someone who is firmilar with Hendey lathes. I have a relatively old ( some time after 1924) Hendey arch top/tie bar 14x40 lathe that I bought for scrap price . The tooling was worth what I paid so I was happy. The lathe got put in a corner and used to get out of a pi...