Well this week I was a little bit all over the map in working on things. I had planned to find a piece of steel to make the big thick washer that holds the collet tray up to the spindle. Unfortunately when I got to my local scrap yard they were closed for the afternoon. So needed to work on something else.
I decided to take the new to me crossfeed  threading handle apart that I purchased from California. Upon closer inspection it looks like this crossfeed extension support was also repaired at one time. The gear for auto crossfeed was a later Boston gear part that was pinned onto the shaft as well it looks like "JB weld" on the back of the crossfeed extension support. Here is a picture of the repair job  as well as a picture of the all handle pieces. The threaded shaft is in Evapo rust as i type cleaning off the small bit of rust there was.

While these parts are soaking away decided to start some work on the wooden pattern I will build to allow a foundry to cast more some more tray support brackets. Here is a picture of the original bracket that will be the template for the new pattern.



Decided the first thing I will build will be the lower shelf support. Glued up a few boards for the project and then planned them down to a little over 1/2" thick for the parts I will need. Picked up one piece and cut a groove in it to allow the support bracket to be glued in. Here is a picture of the wood pieces and the bottom of the bracket so you can see where the pieces would go.

 I then cut that piece in half down the centre of the support bracket and then transferred the shape of the tray support over to the wood pieces and cut them out. Once rough cut, I sanded up to the line with the oscillating drum sander I have. Here is a picture of the two pieces rough cut prior to sanding down to size. I still need to carefully sand a taper on some of the sides to allow smooth release from the green sand casting material when at the foundry.

One of the other pieces I started on was the curved bracket you can see in the third picture. I had a thick piece of maple that worked perfectly for this. I carefully drew out the curve a best as possible and then removed the majority of the wood with the table saw. I then went back to the Drum sander and carefully sanded it down to the thickness and shape required. Here are two pictures showing the rough cut out and the finished piece.

I still need to make the back brace for this part and then fit it into the pattern as needed. Being as I am not going to work this week I hope to have a fair amount done over the next 3 days before the Easter weekend.
Until next time

Harold