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April 2010 Group Picture
There are hobby machinist groups scattered around the USA including a small HSM group in Connecticut. Our CTHSM group is congenial and freewheeling:
no rules, no dues, just people getting together to learn new techniques plus share thoughts on machining and other topics that arise. Meetings are held in member shops, nominally on the second Sunday of the month at 2pm. Anyone interested in attending a meeting please contact me
(via the link below on this page) for more info and travel directions.
The June 9th meeting was at Ralph's shop in New Hartford, CT. Ralph's locomotive and tender are essentially complete; he will be moving them to the Southwick Train club shortly where he will be able to operate it on their tracks.
Ralph's locomotive is shown at right. Note the engineer's seat on the tender and the folding foot peg for the engineer's use when under way. There are over 2000 rivets in the tender and many of the small fittings on the engine were investment cast in bronze and then machined.
The view from the engineer's seat. The locomotive runs on coal which is shoveled in through the door at bottom center. It's critical to maintain the water level in the boiler so there is a sight guage at left. Boiler pressure is also important so there is a dial type pressure gauge and also over pressure relief valves to prevent accidental over pressure events.
Boiler startup is surprisingly complicated. The firebox is at the rear so smoke must travel forward horizontally through the boiler before going up through the stack. The hot smoke wants to rise rather than travel horizontally so to get things started Ralph uses a small fan placed temporarily in the stack to draw the smoke out during startup. Once the boiler warms enough to produce steam then 4 nozzles in the stack direct steam upwards to maintain smoke movement so the fan can be removed. In operation, the steam passed through the engines is directed through these nozzles to continue helping to maintain air flow through the firebox.
Here's an interesting variation on using the Kant Twist clamp parts available to CTHSM members.
See: Kant Twist Knurler at HSM
The August 11, 2024 meeting will be at Frank's shop in Plainville, CT. No meeting in July = vacation time.
Parts for Kant Twist clamps will be available at this meeting.
As usual, bring items for demonstration and/or discussion. Plus items for the sale/swap/free table.
Home shop machining is often a solitary hobby, as are most hobbies now according to "Bowling Alone".
The CTHSM group is an attempt to get area HSM's to know one another and thus make our hobby a little less solitary.
The much larger NEMES HSM group is 2-3 hours away so we share some members and occasionally have visitors from that group.
The CTHSM group has been meeting since November 2008, mostly on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2pm, but we deviate from this with some regularity. The January meeting is not held since Cabin Fever conflicts, February has seen a couple meetings cancelled due to weather, the May meeting is on the 3rd Sunday to avoid a conflict with Mother's Day, and we don't meet in July because many members are on vacation. Over time our meeting schedule has become predictably irregular...
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Pictures from our unusual "Music Machine Meetings"
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