This morning I threaded the rear of the spindle 7/8"-28 and made two lock nuts to put on the rear of the spindle.
This is the completed spindle. ready to go.
After making the lock nuts, I threaded them on the spindle and face both sides of the lock nuts while on the spindle so they would be perfectly square.
I needed to face a bearing pad on the rear of the body but it had to be square with the spindle bore. To line this up , I put a bushing and a rod in the bore and the other end of the rod in the collet in the mill spindle. this held everything in alignment while I clamped it down for milling.
After clamping down the rear bearing pad is milled on the body. this makes a flat surface for the lock nuts ( or bearings, if I use them) to ride against holding the spindle in the body.
With all that done, it is time to make the other end of the body. A piece of 3 1/8" diameter steel bar stock is turned to size and a trunion bearing surface is turned just like the other body end. Next a slot will be cut for the clearance for the gear.
In order to hold this piece on the mill, I adapted my lathe milling table by drilling two 3/8" holes so it can be bolted on the mill table. This worked so well, I think I will make a auxiliary table just for the mill ).
The body end is clamped down and using a .375" wide cutter it was short work to mill the slot. It was almost 3 cutter widths wide and I was taking .200" cuts.
Here is the test fit of the body parts. You probably get the idea of how this works now, but if you don't ,, keep watching .....more tomorrow. I need to drill and bolt these parts together, need oilers installed to oil the bearings, and get started on the base unit.