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And, another dab of solder to put them back together.

I'd been asked why I didn't either make the thing as one piece (a single flat bar
with a single section of tubing) and then saw it in half after doing all the work,
or at least why I didn't pour the braze in while it was still soldered the first time.

The answer is strength.
I'm trying to make these pieces as absolutely strong as possible. I'm heavily overengineering them
compared to the factory part. I want them to last, and I don't ever want to have to worry about them
as a "weak link" while machining something. The Nichols has a 40-taper spindle and a healthy
drive, and can take quite a cut- moreso than the average Bridgeport style mill. But thanks to the
arrangement of the nut, it's only contacting half the leadscrew, unlike virtually every other machine
which has a nut fully encircling the screw. So I made the nut as long as possible (almost two threads
longer than factory) as "tall" as possible (as in, as much wrap around the screw as possible.)

If I'd made a single piece and then sawed it, I'd have lost the thickness of the kerf,
plus whatever it would take to mill the cut faces smooth again. The loss may well
have been insignificant in the long run, but the time and labor difference between
the two methods would have been minimal.
Second, and just as important, being able to braze in the "open" as I did, and not
trying to push brass down a closed pipe, helped me assure a good, full braze fusion to
the steel base, and helped prevent the formation of gas pockets or voids in the bronze.

Sometimes that little extra work is worth it.





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