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This is the first model I have designed completely from scratch without any other model used as a reference. Its an oscillating steam engine with an 11/16 bore and a nominal 1 inch stroke. I'm looking forward to building this. All 3D models and renderings were generated by Fusion 360.

What are the general characteristics of bronze? I am interested in using bronze for foundry work in making my own castings for models. Particularly steam engines. I do know that bronze is softer than cast iron, which would mean that it would wear faster. Given that a model would not likely be...

Uilleann pipes, border pipes, and highland pipes. There are days I wish I had a Myford. They look like very solid machines that would suit my needs perfectly. Right tone I have a Grizzly G4002. 12 inch swing and 24 inches between centers. I really need to find a way to make what I have work...

Its a long and very slight taper, about 0.020 per inch. Compound wouldn't really be suited for that kind of job. The tapered portion needs to be around 14 3/8 long, erring on the side of making it slightly longer as well.

I have a need to turn tapers for some tooling I need to make, but I haven't got the funds to buy a taper attachment for my lathe, nor do I really want to try those modifications some make with boring heads for offset turning. I want to be as exact as possible and for me, that means offsetting...

It's a G4002 lathe from Grizzly, and its about ten years old so it is no longer covered by warranty. I know that Grizzly isn't the greatest lathe out there, but at the moment I can't afford anything better, so I will have to make it work.

After installing a collet closer attachment to my Grizzly G4002 lathe, I checked the stock with an indicator, as theoretically speaking, stock held in a collet should run relatively true. The stock was found to be running out by 0.002. So I took the nose cone out of the taper and ran an...

Not necessarily have personally, but I know people who do.

Recently I was lucky enough to find an excellent example of an early traction engine from Westinghouse almost hidden away in a barn. The engine itself is owned by Mr. Alan Schurman who has turned his property into a museum of sorts. In any case, at first I had wanted to model it in half scale...

Which is why I bought a hard copy off Amazon.

Thanks everyone. I was thinking that perhaps my first build would be a small cross tube boiler, something which is both simple and robust.

When making model boilers out of copper, what type of copper alloy is used and what wall thickness of tubing should be used to construct the shell?

Ok, I had figured there would be some sort of alloying elements in there. I have heard of ductile and malleable irons, though I can't remember which one came first in the history of metallurgy. If memory serves correct an engineer once told me that cast crankshafts were either made of cast steel...

If my understanding is correct, back in the 19th and early 20th century, many engines were made with cast iron crankshafts. How strong were these and what kind of loads could they be subjected to?

I've been interested in building a scale model of the Westinghouse traction engine for a long time, but seemingly the only way I have to do it is to take one of the surviving ones apart, make measurements, then make scaled down drawings. This does not seem feasible, so the next best thing would...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_PHLOiRV-s Here it is.

I came across a video on youtube of an antique model steam engine someone had built that had a rather unique centrifugal governor on the flywheel instead of the usual ball type governor. I'm wondering how this type of governor is linked up and how it operates when compared to a standard Watt...

Anyone ever machined a Corliss cylinder block from solid bar stock? I want to build a Corliss type model from scratch and I'm debating whether or not I should make castings or try and machine from solid metal.

Just wondering, how would I make the cores for the steam chests in a Corliss cylinder block? From the outside it looks almost like a solid block of metal.

I know from having operated a few in my day that steam traction engines, and many early gas tractors, have a friction clutch with expanding shoes that engage the flywheel. I work for a company that builds marine winches and while doing some assembly work today, I gained a partial insight into...