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John:
"Nick has still not managed to get hold of the guy who is making the disc. He will keep trying, but I don't hold out much hope of getting anything now. I have aquired a big piece of thick aluminium with which to make the disc.
Some experts told me that you cannot weld most shaft steels, so we would have to either use mild steel (eg: reinforcing bar) or come up with some other way of joining the shafts together. We were given a couple of pieces of half inch silver steel rod to think about. We can drill, cut and thread this type of steel, but cannot weld it. It is quite tough stuff and we could quench-harden it when we have got all the bits assembled. We can get some more of it if we decide that it is the way we want to go.
April fool!
Nick just phoned. He is picking up the discs and shaft material this evening. The discs are made of 5mm Checker-plate
aluminium (Duraluminium the tough one). The shafts are 15mm silver steel. The other bits of the cranks are mild steel.
He will be trying to get the cranks made up for us, but this might not be possible. More news later..."
"...I called Nick last night. He will be picking up the cranks today. I cannot get over there tonight because it's my son's birthday and we are going out for a meal. I will pop over on Wednesday night to collect them. He lives in Gravesend, so it's quite a trek.
We will probably have to do the drilling and cutting ourselves. I do have a small drill-stand (for drilling holes vertically and accurately), so I could do this, but I will probably have to buy a 15mm drill bit. Does anyone have access to a proper drill stand and bits of that size?
Nick now has the discs and the crank material. He said the discs look fantastic and it's a shame to get them dirty. Malc suggested making them into coffee tables. They would go well with the meat trolley/cd rack?