A boring table for a Craftsman 12" lathe

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vtsteam:
Thank you for that ironman! :beer:

vtsteam:
Here I've widened the central groove with my new homemade milling cutter. I left a couple shoulders near the corners to serve as references when I cut the dovetails:

vtsteam:
Cutting the dovetails:

vtsteam:
First one done:

vtsteam:
I finished the other dovetail cut today removed the new table from the mill vise and laid it on the lathe saddle, to pretend it was functional. I tried setting the 3/8" steel plate on top and then the cross slide. Pushed them up to the tailstock center to see if there was enough clearance for setting the tool height, running things back and forth to see how it all went. Of course without a gib or slide screw nut it wasn't much of a try out, but it was fun imagining. I probably would have made turning noises except for the fact that my wife might have been walking by outside! :)

So next thing to do was make a gib strip. I knew I had a 3' length of brass strip somewhere about the right size, but when I located it, it was the right thickness -- 1/8" but not wide enough -- 1/4".

Probably ideally it would be made of cast iron, but I didn't have anything suitable to saw out of old castings, and I wasn't about to fire up the furnace just to make some iron stock for a gib. So I rummaged around in a brass and bronze scrap barrel I bought at auction a few years ago and found a 9" long strip of what looked like bronze, about 1" wide and 3/16" thick.

Kind of soft, and had what looked like pores. I don't think it's sintered bronze, but not sure just what it is. But seems like it would have good bearing qualities, and anyway it was about the right size so I cleaned it up on the mill and thinned it down to 1/8". I'll need to miter the edges and slitting saw it to size tomorrow. But that's about as far as I got before being called away to entertain in-laws. :(

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