The shaft bearings? No problem, the machine ‘ate’ them in no time, together with their housings and all the other bits I needed to machine, wheel hubs, gear blanks, flywheel etc. Then came the cylinder casting. With compound cylinders of 1.875” and 2.875” diameter this is quite a lump of cast iron. Splinters gathered under the finger nails from the head scratching . ……. ‘If I had a boring table …?’ Running a rule over the cylinder casting I concluded I would have a problem achieving centre height, also the sheer size of the casting would put a considerable bending strain on a relatively small boring table – so the milling machine it had to be. Problem solved – but that’s another story.

A club meeting entitled ‘How do you do that?’ came along. I thought some wizard among us would have the ideal solution to my crosshead guides so I posed the question, suggesting they be held in the four-jaw chuck with a fixed steady at the outer end. Wizards there were – ‘don’t be daft, that will chatter like hell’ being the considered opinion and ‘bore it on the saddle’ being the considered solution. ‘But’, I lamely cried, ‘I don’t have any T-slots’. After the ‘then you have a problem’ phase of the conversation, two stalwart members in the form of Tom Dominey and David Spicer said ‘I have a boring table for a Harrison, you can borrow it’. I said my thank-yous, commenting that I was not quite ready to machine these guides and would come back to the subject in due course. Anyway, at the next meeting David kindly presented me with a plastic basket which contained a very greasy genuine Harrison boring table. ‘Here you are’, he said ‘I’ve had it eight years and never used it, you can clean the packing grease off it’.

I knew from my lathe handbook such an attachment was made by Harrison but I had not seen one advertised anywhere and thought the cost would be very high. I got to thinking, rather than bring the machining of the guides forward, why not copy the boring table while I had it? I had been given, some years previously, a slab of cast iron with some T-slots cast in. Eventually I removed this by now rather rusty item from its hiding place. It measured approx 10” x 13” and was 1.25” thick. The Harrison table was 9” x 9.25”. So the project started. It should be made clear that the boring table for a lathe of this type is not an add-on to the cross slide but replaces it completely.

If I cut 9” from the 13” this will give me a piece of iron from which to make the taper pieces for the gibs which I will bolt and dowel to the table. OK so far, what do I have that will cut a 1.25” thick slab over 10”? Only one thing, out came the 9” disc cutter! Very successful operation except I and everything in the vicinity turned black – you should have seen the wash basin, was I popular?!! A similar operation reduced the second dimension. There were some unwanted holes in the slab so these were filled by loctiting steel plugs into them. The slab was ‘cleaned’ both sides by flycutting the entire faces. Using an angle plate the sides were squared up on the mill and a 40 mm shell mill used to machine them to accuracy. I then had a rudimentary boring table but with only two T-slots when I needed four. I have had a T-slot cutter for years but had never used it before (I have no idea where it came from or why I had it – you know how it is), it concerned me slightly that this operation would be a “bit of a grunt” for a relatively light machine but was reassured by members it would work. After milling two nine-sixteenth slots about three quarters deep I mounted the T-slot cutter, set the machine at about 150 revs and guess what? It worked perfectly. Due to the existing T-slots I was unable to position the slots quite as I would have liked, but no matter. I put a slight bevel on all edges by mounting a countersink bit in a collet and using it like an end mill.

Well, I learned something there – I hope some knowledgeable person will tell me why one day. After altering the angle plate on the milling machine the components were machined without problem. I decided on M6 Allen cap screws (because I had these in stock) to hold the slides to the underside of the table together with two three-sixteenths dowels per slide. The gib strip I machined from a piece of quarter by one inch mild steel flat. Marking out the positions for the slides was a straightforward operation as was the drilling, tapping and dowelling. I started with the front slide (not the one with the gib strip) as upon this one would rest the alignment of the table. The positioning of the gib strip slide was a little more complex and remembering the old adage quoted above I offered the genuine Harrison table and gib up to the stripped down cross slide. Guess what – the gib strip was too thick by about 30 thou, thus preventing the whole thing from fitting. I do not know why this was the case but can only assume the cross slide casting was modified during the many years this model was manufactured, mine being a fairly late machine. Anyway, this slight problem was overcome by taking dimensions from the position of my table on the lathe.