Pattern for replacement lever is on the left, the thing sticking out of it is a threaded picture hang eye, I used it to lift the pattern from the mould. The new cast Aluminium lever is at the front, I have marked out and filed the octagonal shape to fit the recess in the plastic piece above it. The original plastic lever had been broken and the rest of the base was fairly beaten up so I machined the sides of the base and did some filing on all the edges to give them a nice small radius. The base had been discarded so it was a good free find. The magnet is in excellent condition and is good and strong.
When I cast the lever I used some finer sand mix as a facing sand. It came out a lot finer than my normal sand except that I didn't put enough facing sand on and subsequently the coarser sand came through to the pattern in places. I was happy though as this is the first time I have used "facing sand" I bought 5 buckets of beach sand from the local landscaping supply place and made it up with Sodium Bentonite.
The octagonal shape is only shallow so I just marked it out and filed it.
I drilled and tapped two M3 x .5 and attached the plastic disk that locates and rotates the magnet.
All assembled and painted a silver grey hammertone finish. The hammertone is only fine so it can't be seen in the photo. I like that nice new lever. :-)
The thread for the vertical post was ok in the base but I thought I would make a piece and fit on top just so there'd be more thread there, and to make it look a bit snazzy :-). The top piece is machined out of high tensile Aluminium bar stock and held on with 4 stainless screws in 1/8 inch BSW. I put a short piece of threaded rod in the base and screwed the extra bit on until it butted up tight against the base, then I marked and drilled and tapped for the 1/8 inch BSW screws. I also put 2 screws in the front because the plate was a bit wonky.
Machining a new vertical post, the thread is M8 x 1.25, I made the thread longer so it also engages into the original thread in the base, the thread looks rough in the pic but it is nice and smooth and a nice close fit. The shaft is made out of stainless steel 431.
Shaft in Aluminium split bush for machining of the end of the shaft.
Another view and post screwed in.
Machining and threading the stainless steel shaft that the indicator fits on. The plain location part for the indicator is 1/4 inch diameter, the thread is M6 x 1.
Shaft fitted to the clamp mechanism.
All assembled.
I put a washer on the end held in place by a 1/8 inch BSW stainless screw.
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