The Home Machinist!

maggi; i just noticed that you build in 7.25" gauge. you will have to alter your cross pieces even more so that they work with the thicker side pieces. you need to lose 1/4" overall in the width of your cross pieces. i build in 7 1/2' gauge down here. sorry bout that. i think i got it righ...

maggi; should you go the alternative mogul lead truck route, you might want to do these changes to the lead truck frame works. 1. make your lead truck side frame pieces out of half inch thick crs flat stock instead of 3/8" stock. reason; the cylinder bars are made out of half inch bar stock. do...

have you ever heard of fiberfrax. it's a ceramic blanket about a half inch thick. available in big rolls. one roll should lag several boilers.
respectfully submitted
bigc

i, too, am saddened by this news. gene was the standard by which all of the live steam vendors out there need to live up to. when you placed an order with gene, you never had to worry whether or not , and when you would get your order. if it was not available, you would be given a good reason and sh...

while this does not pertain to the V&T RR ten wheeler, i did take the gene allen mogul kit and use it to build a pretty good looking copy of the C&G 10 wheeler that sits in a roadside park in columbus, ms. by using the line drawing on page 70 of the book entitled Delta Route, by louis r. sai...

this may be just a smudge off topic, since you can't ride on it, but i want to build a three cylinder vertical steam engine just for the heck of it. the question is; with three cylinders, where do you set the crank throws. are they set at 12 noon, 4 o'clock, and 8 o'clock, or at 12 noon, 2 o'clock, ...

it's me again. when i first got into this hobby, i had already studied all the available catalogues that were out there. they didn't show much of a promise as every kit and parts were priced way out of my range. then i saw an add for the allen mogul catalogue. gene's products were priced so that i c...

i forgot to mention that my mogul runs on oil. i used the r.r. supply oil burner. i use two tenders. one for oil and the other for water. i had to put big labels on each tender in order to make sure all the helpers would put the right stuff on the right tender. other that that, no problems. basicall...

mr. rafferty mentioned my change to the ecc arms and connectors as an improvement to the allen engines. the rod is straightened and threaded with left and right hand threads; this makes it into a turnbuckle. the connector if then offset and threaded accordingly, and finally a sleeve made out of hex ...

i don't know whether or not someone has already mentioned it, but i think the guys in florida were first to start using this material. they were looking for a bushing material that they could use without having to add any lubrication and they come up with the nylatron material. being as it is uber s...

i have used it on all allen moguls and 10 wheelers that i have built over the years. the first word that comes to mind as to how it performs is WOW!!! my first engine that the late mr. wilson built for me back in the early eighties used brass bushings. they wore to an egg shape in a short amount of ...

i built a throttle out of a chunk of 1 x 2" stainless steel, using the allen prints. all levers, pins, nuts, etc. were also made of stainless. the disc is made out of brass. so far, it hasn't shown signs of wear, however, when it does, i think it will be easier to lap the disc back to a good st...