I bought a 24" Diacro finger brake off Craig's List around 10 years ago. It was missing one 1 1/2" finger, the angle iron extension table on the folding bar and the two bending handles. No problem with those three things; found a 1 1/4" finger on eBay for $20, bought a piece of 2" x 2" x 1/4" angle from Lowe's and made the two bending handles out of 3/4" black pipe with a solid rod running down the center.
Another thing "improvised" on the brake were three of the four adjusting knobs for the finger mounts. Instead of the factor knurled steel knobs, the previous owner had bolts. The knobs are used to make adjustments on either end of the brake for the thickness of material. Adjustments are up/down and in/out relative to the folding bar. It was a balmy 8 F in my shop, the only 2 fluorescent light fixtures just flickered, all of the LED lighting fired right up.
Plan was to make the knobs out of 1" diameter aluminum drilled out for hardware store bolts. A cross hole would get a spring pin to hold the knob and screw together.
I leave a 5-C collet chuck on my Clausing 12" lathe and usually a 3-jaw chuck on my Grizzly 14" lathe. Started on the Clausing with a pair of 3/8" and 1/2" bolts in collets, turned off the hex heads. Then chucked up the aluminum in the Grizzly and turned a shoulder at the base of the knob. Drilled & reamed the appropriate holes to accept the bolts. Pulled the aluminum from the Grizzly and tapped the bolt in place.
For the cross hole, the 1" aluminum was set in a 1" 5-C collet held in a square collet block. It finally dawned on me to write the dang width of the collet block in Sharpie marker on the block so I don't have to practice measuring yet again the width with a mic and dividing by two for the center line position. Oh, though I was going to have a REALLY BAD DAY when I turned on the mill DRO and the display was blank. Turned it on and off a few times, went through the initializing cycle, but then the display went blank. I pulled the head from the mill and plugged it in at my Grizzly lathe DRO - still blank. I have a propane heater in the shop, set the DRO head near the heater and after 10 minutes it fired normally. I had already done the set up for drilling the cross hole in the knob for a spring pin using the hand wheel dials, but boy did I miss that DRO! Lessons learned, when it's < 10F in my shop the DRO display might not work . . . Maybe turn the heater on 45 minutes before going to work.
Pressed a spring pin in the cross drilled hole to lock the knob and screw together. Went back to the Grizzly to knurl and part off the knob. Finished them up on the Clausing by mounting the threaded end in a collet, then faced the top of the knobs.
Project turned out great. Would have been easier to find some knobs from McMaster but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to work in a 10 F shop!
Bruce