The Home Machinist!

Please join a local club and seek their guidance and advise for your boilers. Fellow club members will be able to point you in the right direction with your projects and they can tell you if any local state inspections are needed. Many States have exemptions for "model" boilers under a ce...

Harold_V wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:19 pm Borax that contains water (although it is dry) will work, but it is troublesome to use because of its propensity to "puff up" and be blown about by the heat source.

This is the exact issue I experienced when I "seasoned" my new graphite crucible.

Bill Van Brocklin made engines with aluminum pistons. On one engine his notes call for the piston to be 1.123" Diameter and the cylinder to be a polished finish at 1.125" diameter. Anyone who has seen a VB engine in action knows that they are some of the best running 3/4" engines ever...

Ever seen the rods from the fellow in Canada who soldered them together? I forget his name..think it begins with 'R' but every loco that he built (that I have seen) had a soldered lap joint in the side rods. This was fairly common in the early days of the hobby back when 3/4" scale was king. I...

In my opinion the internal porosity shouldnt be a problem with casting them solid. Has this happened with multiple foundries or just one? It sounds like you are happier with the cored waxes anyways so it might not matter at this point but like I said I do not believe you should be seeing this issue.

I also contacted a different company about having cylinders cast. To have the patterns made, in this case sand printed, and have one set cast was in the $16-20,000 range. Fabricated they will be, and I will use a set of auto /truck liners for the bores. Nyle That's complete lunacy. The directly 3D ...

If not, my current plan would be to build from stock unless I can find others interested in making a few sets of castings. As someone who has spent a decent amount of time making patterns/castings and speaking with foundries I would agree that for a one off making as many parts out of bar stock as ...

Its pretty clear that most of their focus is on the CNC education market which means most of their customers are colleges, universities and trade schools. I'm guessing that means their machines have pretty hefty price tags. The benchtop 3Axis cnc machine that I have had an original MSRP in the $25k ...

When calculating proper head space in the past I have always been surprised how little clearance is really needed.

mcjustis wrote: ↑Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:46 am There's no way it would have worked as I received it. I didn't even think of trying to bend it without heating it up. Lesson learned. Luckily it was only a $12 casting.

Did you buy it direct from Allen models?

I would have called them and asked to swap it for a usable casting.

Just buy a graphite crucible off amazon - perfectly good for hobby use:

https://www.amazon.com/Foundry-Graphite ... 116&sr=8-8

I do not believe the Coles castings/patterns are really "lost". They are simply sitting in a barn and the current owner wants $100k for the "business". Which is a lot of money for a hobby business, very long ROI so nobody will likely purchase and the products cant be easily split...