Hello from Eastern Pennsylvania. My name is Jim, and I am new not only to this forum, but also to machining, etc. Aside from truing up brake rotors in my former life as an auto tech, I have done nothing with lathes and mills. So, I will be doing a lot of reading here to find out just what the heck it is I am getting myself into!
What brought me here was firebird's boiler build (thank you, firebird for the stellar documentation of that build). I was contemplating building a small boiler of my own and a google search led me here.
My interest lies in steam; I have been a steam locomotive engineer (part time) for about 17 years. Unfortunately, I have not been very involved in the heavy maintenance/fabrication that the locomotive requires. We have a shop crew that takes care of that. I just run 'em. But, I do understand the theory, have thirst for more knowledge and want to build stuff of my own.
Over the Christmas break I was bored and looking for something manly to build... preferably something that would run on steam. My local hobby shop had nothing of interest. So I turned to the internet. I was beginning to lean toward something small to start - one of the Wilesco traction engines or possibly a powerplant of some sort, but am now thinking that I can (and want to) build something from scratch. The stuff some of you are turning out is quite impressive and inspiring!
So, here I am - hoping to be able to build something someday soon!
Thanks for the inspiration. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you all!
--Jim
What brought me here was firebird's boiler build (thank you, firebird for the stellar documentation of that build). I was contemplating building a small boiler of my own and a google search led me here.
My interest lies in steam; I have been a steam locomotive engineer (part time) for about 17 years. Unfortunately, I have not been very involved in the heavy maintenance/fabrication that the locomotive requires. We have a shop crew that takes care of that. I just run 'em. But, I do understand the theory, have thirst for more knowledge and want to build stuff of my own.
Over the Christmas break I was bored and looking for something manly to build... preferably something that would run on steam. My local hobby shop had nothing of interest. So I turned to the internet. I was beginning to lean toward something small to start - one of the Wilesco traction engines or possibly a powerplant of some sort, but am now thinking that I can (and want to) build something from scratch. The stuff some of you are turning out is quite impressive and inspiring!
So, here I am - hoping to be able to build something someday soon!
Thanks for the inspiration. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you all!
--Jim
)
