After a hectic few days I needed a bit of r and r in the shed, but it was really great having all the family together.

Made a start on soldering the bits for the cylinder together, for those of you who missed it in my loco boiler thread this is the kit a I used to solder.
I hearth cobbled together from an old ally baking tray, thermalite blocks from B and Q, a propane burner with a large nozzle fitted a bucket of water for quenching, some easy flo solder and tenacity flux, the barrel is just there to keep everything at a handy height.

I solder one cylinder at a time building a little wall around it to keep the heat in.

Both ends done I just opened up the wall so that it would cool quicker after five minutes I quenched it in the water and put it in the acid pickle for 1/2 hr.

This it it all soldered up

Then I just cleaned one end up with a fly cutter, the other end I plugged the bores with some nuggets of ally secured with loctite

Set it back up in the mill and cleaned them all up again with the fly cutter, they picked the datum edges found the position for the cylinder centre line and centre drilled into the nuggets.

To machine the bores I'm going to set the cylinders up in an angle plate on the lathe face plate.
So first job clamp the cylinder up nice and square in the angle plate, I won't slacked the clamp bolts until both cylinders are bored this will ensure that cylinders are parallel.

Remove the parallels and clamp the angle plate to the face plate, I'm just using the centre to help hold thing in place and roughly get position. (its one of those jobs you wish you had three hands) just tighten the clamps lightly

Add counter balance weights I've found the best way to check the balance is to disconnect the head stock from the drive remove the belt or disengage the gear which ever way your machine work, and give the face place a spin with your hand, what your after is for it to come to rest in a radome position if it stop in the same place move the weight or add more weight until you get it balanced.

Using a wobble bar between the centered nugget and a running centre clock the bar up tap the angle plate until it running true, and you've got the cylinder positioned, tighten all the clamps.

Now face plate work is probably the most hazardous job you can do on a lathe bits can fly off and do a you a real nasty, so make sure everything is nice and tight and can't come adrift, before you switch the power on, turn the lathe over by hand making sure nothing can catch, and check that you've got the speed set on slow, and stand to one side when you switch it on just in case.
OK everything nice and safe stick a drill down the bore to get rid of the ally nugget. and bore to size

Thats the first bore done the R and R for tomorrow is the second bore to do that just move the angle plate over clock position up with a wobble bar and bore it out, the cylinders will come out perfectly parallel.
Stew