Well two days' work to report this evening.  I went down on Saturday and spent most of the day altering two commode handles to fit 107. We had very kindly been given two handles of the correct design by the TMS at Crich but they were both too short as well as being different lengths.  After consultation with Steve Roberts (The CME at Middleton) we decided to extend them by using some 1/2" brass bar drilled and tapped onto two pieces of M6 threaded rod.  These were made up to the correct lengths on the lathe. (I had to resurrect my night school teaching of 35 years ago.)  Then a drilling jig was made to allow the cut ends of the commode rails to be accurately centre drilled.  Then the old handles were drilled and tapped and then joined together.

Here you can see the first one completed with a small V notch filed around the joins so that they can be brazed.  The other one is below.

Now the second one has been done and they are both ready for brazing.  

John and Steve then brazed them and I spent some time filing them off and cleaning up.

The first one was then fitted to see how it looked.   I thought it was OK.  I then spent the rest of the afternoon working on the handrails.

Today Jim and Mike Waring turned up and Mike spent the day sorting out the brackets on the decency board. On Saturday Malcolm Johnson had turned me six pillars for the bell rods that go in the saloon. These were made on the copying lathe.

Here is the first one together with the pattern that Malcolm made for the copier to follow.  Also the drilling jig that I had used on the commode rails was modified to make a collet to hold the pillars so that the bases could be drilled and tapped.  This morning I tapped all six of them and also drew out the base plates on a sheet of 3mm brass.  These were drilled and countersunk then cut out and the pillars screwed on. Jim is going to polish them then we can mount the bell rails in the saloon. In the afternoon Jim and I had a frustrating time trying to get the steel and brass spiral handrails to fit at D end. The brass one is now OK but the steel one is being awkward. It seems to be one step forward and two steps back as we use the gas axe to heat it up and bend it time after time. It then has to be quenched and the stanchions bolted on again to try it.  We called it a draw at 4.30 and will continue the battle on Sunday.