The Home Machinist!

While taking the boiler off, I mentioned that I had to cut the throttle and blower lines at the backhead. But to get the smokebox off, I had to cut the throttle lines again where they went into the steam chests. cut steam lines.jpg Problem was, when I tried to cut the left (right side in the picture...

Hi Harold , The colors are a bit tough to discern in the pictures - The firebox, steam dome and smokebox tubesheet are a kind of pinkish color that really look more like they are more copper than bronze. Here's a pic with a piece of phosphor-bronze sheet and some brass bar stock for comparison. The ...

Here are where the big leaks are - on the steam dome solder joint: Dome after SB.jpg And the Smokebox tubesheet. I've circled the cracked areas in both pics and they are not small. SB sheet after SB.jpg There is one or two tiny ones on the firebox sheet on a couple of tubes - very hard to spot. In g...

Back from getting cleaned up at the sand blasters. Much improved and much easier to leak check. boiler LHS.jpg In the picture above, you can see the one and only blowdown valve. boiler RHS.jpg In the picture below, the bolt at the bottom is soldered in place. backhead after SB.jpg FB sheet after SB....

Hi Bill, Looks like the OD is 5-1/2". In the thread http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=104528&start=12 Marty mentions X-raying one of these fireboxes. I may do this if I can find someone nearby who can do for not too much $. Maybe the alternative is a big furnace and pull t...

The boiler looks to be in good shape - no obvious cracks. The turret was soldered on because when I tried to unscrew it, it snapped off. Plugged it with a pipe plug for now. Plugged up the other holes and connected to my compressor and sprayed with soap. Lots of bubbles. Hard to get my camera to foc...

Here's a picture of the cab assembly. cab assy.jpg Then on to the boiler. Removed the boiler bands and shell. Not sure what the lagging is, so wet it down good and carefully put it in it's own baggie. I had already tried some of the bolts holding the boiler to the smokebox. These are brass, heavily ...

First thing was to remove the running boards with a couple of screws. Each one has tubing that feeds a check valve - one from the injector and one from the tender hand pump. No other boiler feed. The lubricator came off with the LHS one. walkways.jpg Next the cab. Removed the sides with a couple of ...

Some additional pictures before getting started. Here's what it looks like currently: right side.jpg Here's the backhead with some annotations. backhead.jpg Here's where the real fun is - inside the smokebox. smokebox.jpg The inside of the smokebox door suggests maybe there was a lot of water inside...

060.jpg I bought this locomotive in 2018 and I've been waiting to start into it until I had more time. After 5 years, if I haven't found time yet, then might as well get started. Tag.jpg The story is that this engine was built in 1970 by Francis Batenich of Chicago in 22 months. He was a tool and d...

The folks at Loctite do a great job of supporting their products. I'm not an ME, so I had to search for how to convert the compressive shear data to rotational shear and found this really great guidebook: https://5.imimg.com/data5/AE/AX/JM/SELLER-2044578/loctite-retaining-compound-638.pdf . The calc...

Just out of curiosity, what is the steam pressure, piston area and crank throw? I'm trying to calculate the shear stress on the joint and I need those numbers to compare with the Loctite TDS. Also, if I understand correctly, the overlapping surface area is the pin circumference times the web thickne...