Building a real live steam engine has been a dream of mine since reading a book on the subject at the local library when I was about 12.  Shortly after I was cutting up road signs, lawn chairs, and anything that seemed to have the right shape pieces of metal.  Needless to say, without proper tools the effort didn’t last long.

I have been gathering some of the necessary tools and materials over the last couple of years as well as the series of books by Kozo Hiraoka.  His latest, Building The New Shay, is extremely well done and does a great job breaking the machining steps into digestable pieces.

I really wanted to build a 1 1/2″ scale live steam that I could actually ride on but the cost of the larger lathe and milling machine is greater than the CEO will approve in the near term.  Perhaps I need a second job to finance my hobbies.  I decided to go ahead and build 3/4″ scale as a learning exercise before investing in the greater quantity of materials and larger machinery.  A 3/4″ scale Shay will be about 36 inches long and ride on rails spaced 3 1/2 inches apart.

Harbor Freight had their 7 X 10 lathe on sale and I was able to pick one up.  For the smaller scale it should work just fine.

Since I don’t yet have a mini-mill, I have only been able to work on a few of the pieces.  I now have 4 axles and 1 of the 8 rims that will make up the wheels.

The metal disk on the left illustrates the starting point for the rim.  Lots and lots of metal shavings!  I enjoy the precision work and I am quickly learning how to get the most out of the mini-lathe.