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Hi, I am travelling to NYC at the end of October for a week on a family holiday. Do any of you guys who live there have a model engineering club or similar with a meeting any evening 24th to 28th october 2011. If so maybe I could come as a guest and meet a few of you. Regards Julian

Hi All, I am just about to build several boilers and need sight glasses for the water level. Rather than the glass tube sort I am looking at the glass plate type. I plan to use my cnc mill to make the mountings for them to sandwich the glass on the boiler. My question is what glass can I use...

Hi All, I like building small engines from whatever metal I have knocking about. This engine is a single cylinder double acting horizontal engine. Not built from plans but virtually 'thrown' together. I forgot to take any pics in the process but have this video of it working on air. The...

Hi, I am most way through building a double acting oscillator (wobbler) and am at the point of drilling the steam ports. Is there a relationship between the cylinder capacity and the size of the steam ports? Is there a formula or is it guesswork until it works properly? My cylinder is 20mm...

Hi, I have a friend who is building a "Clyde Puffer" boat. He wants me to build him a small steam engine to power it when its on the pond. I have come to the conclusion that the simplest but best to build will be a twin cylinder double-acting oscillating engine. Question: 1. Should the flywheel...

Hi All, I recently decided to build a small static engine as a diversion from my main engine and various cnc conversions. I have had in mind a project to build a large oscilator using multiple cylinders. Probably nine or twelve cylinders. In the meantime I want something to sit on the bench and...

Hi Guys, At a recent steam fair Rich and I each picked up a piece of copper tube that both just shouted- "Make me into a boiler....pay the man the tenner!" Its 107mm diameter by 300mm long and the copper is 1.68mm thick. In the chaos that is currently my workshop I cannot find a book that...

Hi All, I have converted my Seig X1 mill to complete cnc running on Mach 3. All drives are steppers with oldham links and home-built lead-screw systems with virtually no backlash. They are not ballscrews but have a slight tolerance. My accuracy is out by three steps per shaft rotation but I am...

Hi All,, I have just fnshed the conversion of my Seig X1 to full cnc. I am using Mach3 but have also started using a free control program called "MasterCNC Utilities". You can find it thru google on the title or go to Colin Ushers web site. It is free and has many very simple wizards. It...

Hi All, At work it is assumed that because I am a model engineer I am also the authority on all technical matters......I wish!!!!! We have had a colleague injured by a lorry tyre exploding as she walked past it and the question was inevitably asked of me....." At 120psi how much air was in...

Hi All, I need to build a simple differential for my traction engine. I am looking for something dead simple and easy to build. It needs to fit hopefully in the middle of my rear axle. The axle is solid at present but will bu cut to suit. One and of the axle is chain driven from the gears and...

Hi Guys, Well on in the conversion of my X1 to cnc. Made new leadscrews, nuts, anti-backlash, motor brackets andthe control box complete with power supply. Will post pics when its done and also when I can find the camera under all the mess. I am running it on mach3 at the moment but got a...

Hi Guys, Here's a different question to the usual 'How do I...' I was asked last week to have a look at and renovate a small steam model for a colleague. We don't know the age but he remembers his father showing it to him when he was under five years old. He is now 58. The model has just...

Hi guys So if you need to be a certified welder to weld a boiler how about silver soldering it together? Ideas? Comments(Sensible)? Thoughts? Julian.

As a previous topic of mine was hijacked I will ask this one carefully. I am in the process of collecting the necessary materials for my next project. It will be a static beam engine run on steam. I am not building to any particular design or plans. It will probably evolve throughout the build...

Hi All First off I live in the UK which is probably very very relevant to the question. I have a length of seamless steel pipe making its way to me for probably and hopefully no charge. It comes from a multi-million pound hospital heating system and was probably 'ordered in error and cut up...

Hi All, I need to adjust the pots on the circuit board on my mill. The torque needs adjusting so it cuts out the motor at the right time. There are four pots on the board. Has someone got the board diagram or can someone list the pots in order. Sieg will not release this info even to their...

John Supaglue tops do not need to get stuck. FROM new place a small sheet of polythene bag over the nozel before screwing on the cap. Change whenever the seal is broken. The constituent of supaglue is not able to stick to polythene. The cap sticks because the glue sticks to the layer left from...

Hi All. I have a chinese lathe from Seig. They make all the others in the various guises around the world. Apart from several design faults they are generally good machines. To keep the price down they fit standard bearings in the head not taper. This builds a little play and instability into...

Hi Guys John Bogstandard said in another post I am lucky only having daughters. Apart from the possibility of funding two weddings and living with three bouts of pmt each month I am very lucky. At leave the dog is a boy so we understand each other! The girls have no interest whatsoever in...