Stickers and Thanks and Stuff and Things

Hey Patrons! It's that time again. Stickers are in the mail for all new Rockstars who joined in July! As always, thank you all so very much for being awesome. I'm constantly amazed that people will share their hard-earned loonies with me in order to make videos about machine shop stuff on YouTube. You all inspire me to keep trying to make the content better. 

Normally this is also where I mention that credits are updated in the videos and blog. However Patreon is in the midst of some upgrades, and I don't currently have access to the tools I need to update the credits list. Hang in there, but don't be alarmed if the list doesn't seem right in the next video or two. Depend on where the month lands relative to my production schedule (and whether Patreon cooperates), the credits can shift a couple of weeks one way or another.

By the way, the book you see in the photo below is called Building The CliShay. It was an awesome gift from a viewer (thanks Willy) all about building a beginner-level locomotive that is powerful enough to run on a club track and pull you around. There is surprisingly little actual machining in it, and minimal precision required. It's cool that such a basic design exists that can do this!. Normally something like a 5" gauge mainline locomotive model is a decade-long project, but this thing looks doable in one winter. The name is a portmanteau of Climax and Shay, two early builders of geared, vertical-boiler logging locomotives. Geared locomotives were built to run on poorly laid track on logging roads, coal mines, etc. Early ones were vertical boilered, because that's a lot easier to build and get good efficiency from (heat rises!). However, they have a power ceiling, literally, because you can only make a boiler so tall before it doesn't fit under trees and bridges. Figuring out how to make power from a boiler lying sideways was an important early locomotive innovation! Anyways, I'm rambling because I love this stuff. You can find this book on Amazon if you're interested in what the simplest possible pull-me-around-the-yard locomotive looks like: https://amzn.to/33qbKnE