Well, it was warm enough in the shop today to get started. I gathered up my parts, cleaned them and plunged in. I was asked about the rods I am using. I saw the price for 1" drill rod and said "I ain't payin $100 for 6 ft. of drill rod". I bought 4 ft of 1" CRS for $5. The finish, size and straightness of the cold finish steel rod is remarkably good. But I ran into a problem. The 19" rods are too long for my 3 ft. bed S B lathe. I will take them to a friend's shop to face the ends and drill the one end of the front bar. I spent about two hours sanding, polishing, more sanding and more polishing until the rods were smooth and shiny. It was worth the work to polish them for the big difference in money. I chose the best one for the front bar with the sliding work head on it and polished it extra shiny. They mic up at .999" to 1.00" when I finished so they will be fine. I figured if I had to skim cut them I would and make the bores to fit but it worked out good.
These are the two bars all polished up and ready to use. I talked on line with a few Quorn and Bonelle users and they all said to lengthen the bars to 18" as 12" is just too tight an area sometimes. The end brackets take up about three inches of them So at 19" , I will have almost 16" of usable bed length.
The rear end was supposed to be 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" . All I could get was 2" square and I want mine 2" x 1 1/2" so I had to saw 1/2" off the piece and mill it to finish size. ( I save that sawed off 1/2" x 2" x 6 1/2" piece to make something else in the future instead of turning it into chips and this is faster also.)
The front end bracket is 2" x 2" x 11" long and needs some cutout areas. It is faster to saw them out and finish mill them, but I had to get creative to cut them on my saw. I don't recommend trying this unless you know what you are doing. I don't know if you can see it but there is a bar propped under the outboard end to stop vibration. Those saw modifications I did are really paying off now.
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These are the ends after sawing. Next I will put them on the mill and finish them. The front bar is wrapped in the towel to protect it. The second bar does not need to be as perfect because it is strictly for support and nothing rides on it.( I still polished it well because I am a bit of a perfectionist and looks are important.
If the weather is good enough tomorrow, I will be milling. I realize it starts slow and kind of boring, but these steps are important to do right as the whole machine is based on them.
