Not much to look at

This is the flanged part that will carry the pump cylinder and it'll eventually be soldered in place on the right-hand end. Even a simple part like this eats up time...

• Find and cut suitable piece of steel bar (in this case inch and a quarter diameter)
  
• Face end then turn down to size
• Progressively drill then ream central hole to 8mm
• Manually form a nice curved end
  
• Turn it round, finish flange to diameter and face off
• Mark off for gland holes

What with sharpening lathe tools that's pretty much two hours down the chute (and it still ain't finished..need to drill and thread those two holes then cut the groove to fit it to the frame). Never mind, getting all dimensions to within a couple of thou' (or 0.05mm) makes it worth the time. Possibly!

Next up, cut the slot in this part and drill and thread the holes for each of the glands. Once that's done the basic frame on which to hang all the other bits will be pretty much finished.