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I've come to the point in my first "real" from-castings steam engine build that I can turn over the crankshaft/conrod/crosshead assembly, but all the parts are still fairly tight. I can turn it over by hand with the flywheel attached, but not just with fingers on the crankshaft. You can see a...

The Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance is on BAEM's calendar for this coming Sunday, in Palo Alto CA: http://www.baemclub.com/pages/Events.html. This looks like a car-focussed event. Does anyone know if there will be any model engines on display? Here's the main page: http://www.paconcours.com. Simon

After my slitting saw disaster with a Stuart conrod casting (http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=18463.0) I set about making a new conrod from steel with a split bronze bearing. Here I am about to trim down the little end, and then I noticed. Whoops, can you see what's...

It seems like every time I use a slitting saw, I mess something up. Last night I started on the conrod of a Stuart No. 4. It's a gunmetal casting, and gunmetal is tricky to machine; it seems to squirm under the cutter, and move around in ways you don't expect. So I set up the conrod with a...

I've been looking for an indexable face mill, about 2" in diameter, that will make it easier to get a good finish on Al and possibly cast iron and steel. The tricky part is that the largest straight shank my mill can hold is 1/2", or an MT2. It seems that this really limits my options. My...

I'm sure this is all old hat for you experienced machinists, but this was only my second chuck backplate that I've made so a couple of things had me scratching my head. So I got a pretty good deal on this Bison 5" 3-jaw on eBay: and you can see beside it the backplate that I ordered. My...

I know that this is probably a FAQ, but how do folks go about tapping smallish holes in cast iron? I was tapping 4BA into a casting today, and the tap got really tight in the first hole; so tight that I was afraid I'd break it, and wasn't able to tap to depth. I'd drilled #33, started with the...

I have a Bison 4-jaw combination chuck that I use most of the time, and I was lucky enough to get a set of soft jaws for it. The soft jaws are unhardened steel, I think, but are pretty tall. I'm wondering how best to put the soft jaws to use. I was thinking of drilling and tapping two holes in...

I picked up this Babco bench vise for $15 at an estate sale: but after getting it home and taking a closer look, I find that the outer jaw is loose on the shaft (not sure what this part is called; the lower bar that slides in the base), so when I tighten it up, the jaw pivots and and the jaws...

I've started work on a set of Stuart No. 4 castings that I was lucky to pick up on eBay: It has the crank as a casting, which I guess means that it's an older set? As far as I know, all the parts are present. I also have a casting kit for the reverse gear.

I put together a Cotswold Heritage "Isis" from a machined kit a while back (http://www.modelsteamenginesuk.com/acatalog/Isis_Machined_Kit_Model_Steam_Engine.html), which looks like this: But I was never really happy with the way it ran; the connecting rod was loose on the crank pin, so it...

I recently had a couple of spare hours in London, and went to the Science Museum to check out the engine models. There's some great stuff there! Most of it is in the Energy Hall, and there are lots of marine engines up on the third floor. What's neat is that I saw several kinds of engines with...

Manage to (mostly!) finish my Elmer's Fancy II (build thread here http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=17173.0). The lower base is 301 stainless, the main base is 12L14, the body is Al, cylinder and flywheel are brass, and the bearing bushing is bronze. I used precision-ground...

I just got this off eBay. It was advertised as an MT2 hex collet block, but it certainly ain't MT2. The bore is about 0.7" on one end, and 0.75" on the other, and it's about 3" long. It looks like the taper might stop in the middle, with the cylindrical section of the boring being 0.7" (kinda...

After mostly finishing my ball-turning tool (and finding out various things wrong with my "design" ;D), I was keen to put it to good use. I've been eying Elmer's Fancy II, for which there are plans here: http://www.john-tom.com/ElmersEngines/18_fancy2.zip This is a nice little wobbler with...

My mill motor refused to turn on yesterday. It didn't get hot, so I suspected an electrical problem. Here it is waiting to be taken apart: The obvious culprit was the switch. Time to take that sucker out! The wires are labelled when I first took the motor apart after receiving it. Silly me...

What do people generally use to hook up their engines to an air hose (from a compressor)? I have a little airbrush compressor, and am using some plastic tubing right now, but I'd prefer some kind of fitting I can easily hook up to the different engines.

Happy Christmas everyone! Here's a Christmas conundrum. I just hit a hard spot in a Stuart Beam valve cover casting, while drilling a #37 hole. I tried chucking up a stiffer center drill and going at it with that, but the drill isn't going anywhere :( So I'm wondering what my options are...

I'm thinking of building a ball turning attachment, and adapting it to also be used as a rounding table. I'd also like it to have end-stops built in. Has anyone built such a thing? I've seen the usual ball turning attachment plans http://www.bedair.org/Ball/ball.html, and started building one...

I just picked up a length of steel bar from the local hardware store (OSH, in California), and it's made by "Steel Works", of Hillman, Cincinnati, OH. Does anyone know what allow this would be, and how suitable for machining it is? Thanks Simon