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I realised I didn't post a photo of the slot bushes in the state they were in after turning: I'll start with a small update on the material. With the parts a fairly simple shape (i.e. before the slot was milled in them), I measured the OD, ID and length carefully and put them together on the...

Also, trapezoidal lead screws tend to be much coarser pitch than metric threaded rod, so the nut would have to be much longer to get a decent number of "teeth" engaged.

Thanks Ian. I've been doing metalwork for a lot of years now, so that's the bit I find easiest to be honest. It's this wood stuff that takes a bit more thought! I did think about it, but there were a few reasons I stuck with M20. Firstly simplicity/cost: I had some M20 threaded rod & some 20...

Most of today was spent welding (and waiting for recently welded parts to cool down!) but I also did a bit of turning. I started by making a couple of simple bushes out of a bit of rusty steel I had in the scrap bin: These go together with a bit of M8 threaded rod to make some train wheels...

Not much of any interest to report this afternoon. Most of the time was spent finishing all the bits that make up the other two lock pieces for the vice mechanisms: I didn't bother with photos as they look the same as the ones I made for the first lock piece. They're all made now and will be...

The tube went back into the milling vice and I cut another chamfer: Finally, the hinge bar could be inserted (it's loose at the moment, but I'll sort that out later) and a magnet pressed into the hole (again loose at the moment, but I'll glue it later). The assembled lock piece: I'm very...

Next up was the jam bar. This one took a bit of thought! I started by digging out some bits of steel that were the right size to make sure the nut would sit in the middle of the jam bar. I clamped them in place using a spare half-nut as a spacer: I could then fit the proper nut and clamp...

Next up was the hinge block on the nut. I wanted this to sit in the right place, so I used a few bits of metal I had lying around to help clamp everything up. I started by sandwiching the hinge block between two longer blocks, with a small piece of 3 mm aluminium to make sure the face of the...

I started the welding with the half-tube. I used the hinge block from the nut as a spacer for the two hinge blocks for the tube. I added an old (and rather battered) feeler gauge in the middle as a spacer to be sure that it would all move after welding. I've got loads of bits of feeler gauge...

There's going to be a lot of brass turning involved in this project. I imagine that if I were buying the brass, it would probably be more expensive than the rest of the project put together and I would have looked for an alternative material. However, I got a lot of brass out of a skip a few...

I went out to the garage this morning with a plan of doing some welding, but realised the batteries were flat on my welding helmet. I need to pop out to a shop to buy some CR2032s, but in the meantime I thought I'd do some other bits and pieces. I started by taking the frame parts for the old...

Last job for the day was sizing the bits that will make up the vice mechanism body. First of all I used the side of an end mill to square up one end of each part (none of these components need to be especially accurate and this is a quick and easy way to do it): Then I got a carbide insert...

Next up was the half-tube. I mounted this in the milling vice: and milled a slot in the middle. That took a bit longer than cutting it with an angle grinder, but it's much neater! Next I mounted it on a single parallel with the parallel going through the new slot, slid the parallel back...

The tube hinge blocks take a bit more work than the other parts. First of all I cut the curved face. It made sense to do all six them at the same time. It didn't take me very long to do as a result of the fact that the last thing I'd used my boring head for was the prototype I made over the...

I work a 4½ day week so after doing a couple of chores I had most of the afternoon to make some more progress. Today was spent mostly on the milling machine. I've been working on the vice mechanisms. I decided to cut all the pieces to (slightly over) length on the bandsaw and then mill stuff...

I think I've finished all the milling-machine drilling now (and I've given the milling machine a very thorough clean & oil!) The feet now look like this (top one is the dual-screw end, bottom one is the conventional vice end - and likewise for all the other photos in this post): I still need...

Last night I spent some time making a CAD model for the vice mechanism. I'm glad I did as I realised that I hadn't left enough space for the lock piece when it is disengaged. I'd obviously had a brain-dead moment when I was measuring the prototype and only measured it in the locked position...

If you can't face a 90 minute Cosman video, Neil Paskin has quite a good one:

That looks fantastic. What finish did you apply?

Youtube video with more info on the mechanism: