Some more slight progress in the last few days.
The cylinder sleeve has emerged from a lump of cast iron.
I like mounting parts on mandrels using Loctite 601
The column has now gained some side webs, and tested for a trial fit with the cylinder sleeve.
Here is the embryo cylinder end cover being spot drilled for the stud holes using the DRO's PCD function.
The steam chest and its cover also came from a spare chunk of cast iron, here being sliced up with a solid carbide saw.
After finishing to size it too was spot drilled for the stud holes, in this case they are 12BA.
Then the outer face was pocketed out 0.010" deep.
The faces were then polished on very fine emery to remove all machining marks, and the pocket was roughed up a bit with a Burgess engraving tool.
The photo has not really shown it at its best on this one.
Phil