The Home Machinist!

Boston and Maine B-15 Class Mogul 2-6-0.

Hi Marty,

Thanks for the info! I'm seeking 6" Schedule 40.

I'm having a very hard time finding anyone local to me that can supply a short length of SA106B. I have been able to find a local steel supplier who will sell a "drop" length (28") of pipe but they carry "A53 Grade B" as a standard. Can anyone tell me if this is a suitable s...

Thanks for the extra info! I'm not sure how I originally missed the first picture, but this is very helpful to see!

The Boston & Albany has a wide firebox, and I was told that you had to work a wide firebox hard to get the locomotive to steam well. At first, I found that was true, but I didn't think that was the way it should be. I looked in Nelson's book and found out about secondary petticoats. I thought a...

5" is no longer a "mill run" in the U.S. so its not readily available. When many 3/4" engines were designed in the 30's and 40's 5" WAS a standard size available so unfortunately anyone building an engine to one of the older designs may have to roll the shell from sheet, its...

Looks like a good application for a cotter pin to me. That's how all the brake hangar pins are secured in my 3/4" Friends Atlantic.

Freight costs have skyrocketed across the board, recently I have found that getting things across the pond is incredibly expensive so I'm not sure that is the case any longer.

Interesting...I've been wanting to get into, and experiment with 3d printing patterns.......it looks like it's gonna put traditional wooden patternmakers like me in the poor house. ....how do you deal with the layer lines, that the printer leaves ?......do the lines show up in the casting ?.....I w...

As posted earlier in this thread you do NOT necessarily have to "turn around" the baker valve gear to use it with an outside admission D valve. One can simply reverse the angle of the eccentric crank and swap the order of the linkage on the combination lever at the valve rod end. This seem...

Excellent work! The surface finish of the SLA resin printers is very good compared to FDM!

Last year I thought I would save some time by using marine sealant on my (brass) tender body. I followed the directions with regards to cleaning the surfaces and waiting the appropriate amount of time for it to dry before putting in any water. It leaked like a sieve and I spent the next couple of we...