Author Topic: Hello from Salem Oregon  (Read 3840 times)

Offline DD805

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Hello from Salem Oregon
« on: November 14, 2017, 09:51:28 PM »
I am retired. I have been involved in this hobby for over 20 years. I am interested in Steam, Stirling, Hit Miss engines as well as foundry work. I prefer working from castings and like developing and casting my own engine kits. I was heavily involved in the GEARS show that was held in Portland Oregon for almost 10 years. Sadly it is no longer happening. I built my shop in 1997 and have acquired most of the essential tools needed to do this hobby. I have a Grizzly knee mill, a 1941 South Bend 10H lathe, a 1941 South Bend 9" lathe with the very long bed. Both lathes have taper attachments. I also still have my first lathe which was a very small Taig Lathe. A side interest is electronics but I don't spend a lot of time on that type of work. I am very much interested in Foundry work and have my own home foundry setup and have made several hundred castings for engines I make. That is about it. Glad to join.

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2017, 09:56:27 PM »
Welcome to MEM

I displayed at GEARS for a number of years, both at the armory and the RR Museum/Shop. I'm wondering if we may have met?


Dave

Online Kim

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2017, 10:17:38 PM »
Hi DD805,
Welcome to the forum.

I've been to Gears several times (not all ten years, unfortunately).  But attended shows at the Armory and at the Train Museum.  Really enjoyed the show and was sad to see it end.  In fact, it was attending in 2012 that got me hooked on this hobby!

Are you part of the Portland Model Engineers?  I am a member and attend very irregularly, but I may have met you there.

Anyway, welcome to the forum!
Kim


Offline DD805

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2017, 10:42:28 PM »
Dave, yes we have met a couple of times. I was one of the organizers and often worked at the shows helping get people set up. I was an exhibitor at most of the shows. I also was the webmaster and posted pictures of each show. I have quite a few pictures of you and your exhibits. If you Google 1910 Olds Type A model you should see a picture of me posted by Captain Carlson that was taken at probably the 2011 show.

Kim, I used to be a member of the Portland club but now am only a member in the Mid Valley Model Engineers. The Portland club is a great club to belong to. I have a question for you, is you avatar a picture of one of the GEARS models that we sold. If so what year?

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2017, 10:57:22 PM »
Welcome DD. Glad to have you join in the fun we have here. It's a great group of folks here.

Bill

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2017, 11:11:22 PM »
Now I remember, I found the picture that Carl had taken, that is you with your Olds? did you take the pictures for the web page or was that someone else?
I sure miss being able to see everyone each year.

Dave

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2017, 12:32:44 AM »
Welcome to MEM. I'm located just a few miles west of you in Independence.

I'm fairly new to this wonderful hobby and find MEM a great place to hang out. Were you, by any chance, exhibiting at the Brooks Steam-up this year?

Jim
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Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline DD805

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2017, 12:43:39 AM »
Dave, all the pictures taken for the website were taken by Bob Diffley of the Portland club and Carol Felty of Applegate Oregon. They would make a copy of their pictures and send them to me then I would go thru them and pick what I felt was the best for each exhibitor. Sometimes there would be a dozen or more pictures for a single exhibitor depending on how many exhibits they had. I then would look back at what I had posted in the past and make sure I put up a picture that hadn't been posted before. Very time consuming but worth the effort. Too bad it all went away after GEARS shut down.

Offline Jim K 324

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2017, 12:55:43 AM »


             :hi:  DD805

         
                Jim
It's not what you make,It's how you make it that
matters !!

Offline DD805

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2017, 12:57:33 AM »
Flyboy Jim, yes I exhibited at the Oregon Steam-up this year. I noticed your previous posting and saw you were near Salem and planned to advise you of the Mid Valley Model Engineers club. They meet on the third Saturday of the month and the location is at various members shops. You need to visit their website to apply for membership and get directions to meetings. I don't think there are any dues at this time. This is an excellent way for someone new to the hobby to get started. Hope to see you there soon.

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2017, 03:12:06 AM »
Flyboy Jim, yes I exhibited at the Oregon Steam-up this year. I noticed your previous posting and saw you were near Salem and planned to advise you of the Mid Valley Model Engineers club. They meet on the third Saturday of the month and the location is at various members shops. You need to visit their website to apply for membership and get directions to meetings. I don't think there are any dues at this time. This is an excellent way for someone new to the hobby to get started. Hope to see you there soon.

When I was at Brooks this year I took these pictures at a table and had a nice visit. I wonder if that was you?





Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline Art K

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2017, 03:47:44 AM »
DD805,
Hate to break up the family reunion, but welcome to the group. Don't have much of an excuse to get out of Wisconsin. But I do go to NAMES every year and occasionally the Lancaster, PA area thanks to the in-laws. But never west. Must admit you sound well connected. And if I wanted to make a casting it sounds like you'd be a good neighbor.
Art
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you" B.B. King

Offline DD805

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2017, 05:11:21 AM »
Jim, yep that's me with my Fairbanks Morse 25 N. Made from castings by Tom Stuart who also lives in Salem. He is the big fellow you talked to just to my left. Tom is one of the long time leaders of the Mid Valley club. His castings have been sold all over the world. That engine gets better running year by year. Unfortunately he can no longer get cast iron castings for the flywheels here in Oregon so the kit is no longer available. He is someone you definitely will want to meet.

Art K, Thanks for the greeting. Boy would I ever like to get to NAMES. That appears to be an awesome show. Way bigger than the GEARS show. I have a couple of videos of NAMES and it just looks amazing.

Online Kim

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2017, 05:22:07 AM »
Dave, yes we have met a couple of times. I was one of the organizers and often worked at the shows helping get people set up. I was an exhibitor at most of the shows. I also was the webmaster and posted pictures of each show. I have quite a few pictures of you and your exhibits. If you Google 1910 Olds Type A model you should see a picture of me posted by Captain Carlson that was taken at probably the 2011 show.

Kim, I used to be a member of the Portland club but now am only a member in the Mid Valley Model Engineers. The Portland club is a great club to belong to. I have a question for you, is you avatar a picture of one of the GEARS models that we sold. If so what year?

Wow! That's pretty incredible that you could tell what was in my Avatar picture :)
Its the 2011 GEARS casting (aluminum version).  I picked it up in 2012 (the first year I went) - it was on sale for half price I believe.  And THAT little casting set is what got me hooked.  It was way more fun than it had any right to be. It was one of my earlier posts on this forum too: http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,1550.msg21761.html#msg21761

Turns out, it is the only casting set I've done so far.  Everything else has been bar stock. But still, I'm having a ball!

Did you have anything to do with designing the GEARS models?  Or maybe you did the foundry work?

Kim

Offline Roger B

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2017, 11:23:19 AM »
Welcome to the Forum  :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:
Best regards

Roger

Offline DD805

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #15 on: November 15, 2017, 08:52:56 PM »
Kim, Each year a different person from the three clubs in the valley created a model design. I was the designer in 2011. I made everything from prototype to foundry boards. The drawings were however done by someone else because my drawings were not up to standards. I also handled all of the process of working with the foundry and packaging the casting kits. All of our kits were aimed at the beginner to intermediated level machinist. We wanted to help people like you have a project that would help them get started. Apparently it worked. By the way if you look close my avatar is a brass version of the same model.

Karl

Online Kim

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Re: Hello from Salem Oregon
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2017, 04:46:33 PM »
Wow!  Sure enough! How cool is that :)

Yes, it certainly worked for me!  All I had at the time was the Taig lathe with the milling attachment.  It worked.  And made me decided to do more. And get more tools.  And do more, and get more tools... It was your engine that got me on this endless cycle :)

Thank you!  I have had a lot of fun and learned an incredible amount. And clearly, I'm still learning!

Kim

 

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