Recent content by rkepler

You might consider a cupola. "Small" in these usually mean something like 20 pound batches of cast iron, and they're usually enough trouble to fire up that folks like to keep them going for a while once they're started. But that's the only thing that's going to melt iron using solid fuel in...

Shame, that. I've only made one loco but have valves to cut out most every line including the brakes, whistle and both water lines (valve after the check - if the check sticks I can cut it off, fix it and return to service.

Those who went to the NAMES show might remember Scott Logan and his cute little girl - who is now out in the world all married and such, no grandkids yet but still enough to make you feel old.

What length and diameter of glass do you need? I've got some 1/2" redline on my desk cut to 2.845 or so.

It worked just fine for me, and I think my injector has to lift the supply a bit more than yours. I found an older construction photo showing my install, it worked very well.

I'd put a valve between the boiler and the check valve, that way if the check starts acting up while the boiler is under pressure you can close the valve and open the check. You might have one there already, I can't really make out the details there.

The nice thing about the knob is that you can remove the trav-a-dial and clean things. Without it it's a lot more work as I recall. I found someone's posted images of the quick install here: http://s132.beta.photobucket.com/user/revgo1898/media/travadial.jpg.html?fromLegacy=true Not...

I couldn't find instructions for the GB-42 (which I have, somewhere) but my recollection is that after leveling (using the pins near the wheel end) you want to turn the knob in until the wheel contacts and starts indicating, then turn it 1/2 a turn more. Check the precision using a good...

It's used to 'throttle' the injector so yes, I put it there instead of the tender. Works OK either place. One thing I was told that would not work was to plumb the axle pump bypass through the injector input (i.e. the return to tender line). It works fine but you can see the axle pump's...

The Superscale Economy injector will lift fairly well - on my Shay it's fairly high and has no trouble injecting even when the tender is about dry. I had to look around to get an image of the off side but here it is in the final position: (One of these days I'm going to direct the...

I'd go with selling it to a wholesaler - you can get an idea of the wholesalevalue by looking at the selling prices of 20K pound lots on the government surplus dealers. After you get cash use that to buy the spec material that you want - you'll get better value than in trading weight for...

That's a tap holder made in the past by Jacobs, not sure if they still make it. It takes one of the little rubberflex collets made for tapping use, pretty sure it's the same collet as is used in the bigger tapping heads from Tapmatic and others. I don't think you'll find much use for it but...

Try sourcing a glass cylinder dash pot. Something like this would likely work: http://www.airpot.com/html/dashpot_defined.html

I'm not sure if it would, but you don't want paint on those surfaces so I'd leave the oil on them (don't strip it from the scraped surface) or mask them and strip them clean after painting the other surfaces. I've cleaned around them and let them take some paint in overspray, cleaning them off...

I can't say I've ever tried Pam and I'm none too sure that I'd use it. I tend to use Starrett M1, it's a light protectant that comes off in a solvent wash but most any light oil would do for short term use. I wouldn't use something that needs hard work to clean or *anything* with a silicone...