Starting at the bottom the logical first part was the bed ‘casting’ this is the pile of bits I hoped to make it from.
My 5mm steel plate was a bit short but by having the bar that forms the front and back extend right to the top I can gain an extra 1/2". First job was to square up the 5mm plate.
To keep things looking like a casting the sides are angled at 2degrees to represent the draft angle, not easy to see here but the ends of the flat bar are machined to 2degrees and that piece of scaffold tube has been tapered to the same angle.
My welding is not brilliant but as my life does not depend on it I'm happy to use it to join parts for models, here the 1/4" back and 3mm sides are being welded.
The front corners and front plate were then added, everything was clamped to the 5mm plate which helped keep things square and flat. That piece of tube shown earlier was cut into quarters to form the larger radius needed at the front.
The welded sides after cleaning up.
I then put some holes in the top plate to locate the column flanges, mounting bosses and pedestal base bosses.
The areas where the column flanges go were also recessed on the rotary table.
The top could now be welded to the sides and the joints tidied up a bit.
Next up was to machine some of the bits that fix to the base casting, starting with the water inlet, the 1.5" bar was reduced down to the pipe dia and bored.
Then reversed and faced off a bit over length and the radius to the back edge of the flange added.
While I was at it I did a few more of the flanges that use the same dia bar.
The base casting was then clamped to an angle plate and a recess machined to locate the inlet.
The large flanges for the column to fix to were also added together with the ones for the A frame bearing support and the two around the hold down holes. These were then welded in place mostly from underneath.
I then gave the top a quick skim to bring all the parts to one level.
Then the same to the underside. You can also see how the water gets from the inlet flange to the bottom of the column in this shot.
The ‘casting’ was then set true on the mill and the various holes drilled and tapped, mostly 2BA but a couple of 1/4BSF at the rear.
Back onto the angle plates and the inlet flange was skimmed on its face and around the flange.
With all the metal work now done a fillet of body filler was added to all the internal corners and rubbed down once hard.
All that then remained was to apply a quick coat of primer to protect the work and also highlight any areas that may want a second fill.
Next time - the columns.
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