paul ron

im not familiar with these small lathes. i do have experiance on metal lathes, comercial machines, and wood lathes. are you working metal? an oil drip pan under the lathe and an oil feeder may be worth looking into. do you intend to do threading? there are special toolings and accessories needed for that. perhaps asking others here for literature and check out you tube videos to see how to properly and safely use your tools. videos... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=taig+desktop+metal+lathe best thing to do is use it, follow instructions, get plenty of practice.

its not unusual to diy mount a tool's motor using a hinge. the weight of the motor should be enough to tension the tool to the drive belt... if not, you can use bungies or other additional methods to tension the mount. there is no additional stresses to worry about as long as its all aligned properly.

just stain whatever wood you are using to look like redish mahogony.

i leave my strips in the toilet tank for a couple hours. they come out like wet noodles and bend very easily... in fact i can get smaller radiuses than pictured above. whatever floats ur boat...

the rub ons are hard to find in typesets or sizes let alone color. ive had pretty good results with the water slide. the paper is semi transparent so i trace the lettering off the plans using pen n ink. it would be great to find the rub ons we need. im all for the easy way out whenever i can. i hope everyone posts their sources here?

a pen torch would be more than adaquate for such a small piece. but it seems by the conversation here, color is more important than heat. yes, silver solder would be fine, but some of the color matching sugestions are like killing mosquetos with a hammer. at the scale and size of the piece, the weld would appear insignificant. an eopxy fix would be more than sufficient but it's just too simple a solution.

you do realize there are brass low temp brazing rods available? https://www.amazon.com/GEOYLE-Brass-Brazing-Rods/dp/B0C7P15LC9?th=1

do you have a link to where you got your rub on letters?

oh u need white. that creates a different problem. ive made waterslide decals using my caligraphy pens n inks, i needed gold type. i coated the decals with clear satin acrilic spray before soaking in water to preserve the ink from running. perhaps try doing this using white acrilic paint on the print side of the paper?

have you considered using water slide decal paper than you can print your own via an ink jet or laser printer? https://www.amazon.com/water-slide-decals/s?k=water+slide+decals

https://www.amazon.com/Diameter-Eyelet-Colors-Clothes-Making/dp/B0CM3R4NWQ/ref=sr_1_17?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uutbGviZ3Xg8GlX5As_CaaMToYaSzKqOIPuhhggJLDjg9G79SaGl9sJ1dN4eZZNz6EIfcEJIXNXD-usPMCurDioiJM8Agj9AMnfTTAg9Lqa5CIaF_ea4M1drf53_RabEFkAb-K8t5K0IedsY7vCfd6qjNXV-S7LCElSadUaNr61CCGN_y9heNeX9KRqs1ocARl_aCAl-77SIYJt1h-SWPmv1Oz5VF7EIdfvxafbEickO3YcPttbNEQ5EE4ROWHgE2xTM2B6Fb8azHqTV7Rmf5Nhkf5x7OYnclaEFRYCTFWE.SWjrxCHUlZgjnbPKh1VjBFmdzzvuq69NAF6GubOeCUg&dib_tag=se&keywords=small%2Beyelets&qid=1750424228&sr=8-17&th=1

a simple amazon search found this.... https://www.amazon.com/small-eyelets/s?k=small+eyelets are these small enough? https://www.amazon.com/Diameter-Eyelet-Colors-Clothes-Making/dp/B0CM3R4NWQ/ref=sr_1_17?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uutbGviZ3Xg8GlX5As_CaaMToYaSzKqOIPuhhggJLDjg9G79SaGl9sJ1dN4eZZNz6EIfcEJIXNXD-usPMCurDioiJM8Agj9AMnfTTAg9Lqa5CIaF_ea4M1drf53_RabEFkAb-K8t5K0IedsY7vCfd6qjNXV-S7LCElSadUaNr61CCGN_y9heNeX9KRqs1ocARl_aCAl-77SIYJt1h-SWPmv1Oz5VF7EIdfvxafbEickO3YcPttbNEQ5EE4ROWHgE2xTM2B6Fb8azHqTV7Rmf5Nhkf5x7OYnclaEFRYCTFWE.SWjrxCHUlZgjnbPKh1VjBFmdzzvuq69NAF6GubOeCUg&dib_tag=se&keywords=small%2Beyelets&qid=1750424228&sr=8-17&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/GORGECRAFT-Quicklet-Grommets-Backing-Eyelets/dp/B0D2MGBT6T/ref=sr_1_10?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uutbGviZ3Xg8GlX5As_CaaMToYaSzKqOIPuhhggJLDjg9G79SaGl9sJ1dN4eZZNz6EIfcEJIXNXD-usPMCurDioiJM8Agj9AMnfTTAg9Lqa5CIaF_ea4M1drf53_RabEFkAb-K8t5K0IedsY7vCfd6qjNXV-S7LCElSadUaNr61CCGN_y9heNeX9KRqs1ocARl_aCAl-77SIYJt1h-SWPmv1Oz5VF7EIdfvxafbEickO3YcPttbNEQ5EE4ROWHgE2xTM2B6Fb8azHqTV7Rmf5Nhkf5x7OYnclaEFRYCTFWE.SWjrxCHUlZgjnbPKh1VjBFmdzzvuq69NAF6GubOeCUg&dib_tag=se&keywords=small%2Beyelets&qid=1750424228&sr=8-10&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Grommets-Eyelets-Backing-Grommet-Project/dp/B0DC6F3FXS/ref=sr_1_7?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uutbGviZ3Xg8GlX5As_CaaMToYaSzKqOIPuhhggJLDjg9G79SaGl9sJ1dN4eZZNz6EIfcEJIXNXD-usPMCurDioiJM8Agj9AMnfTTAg9Lqa5CIaF_ea4M1drf53_RabEFkAb-K8t5K0IedsY7vCfd6qjNXV-S7LCElSadUaNr61CCGN_y9heNeX9KRqs1ocARl_aCAl-77SIYJt1h-SWPmv1Oz5VF7EIdfvxafbEickO3YcPttbNEQ5EE4ROWHgE2xTM2B6Fb8azHqTV7Rmf5Nhkf5x7OYnclaEFRYCTFWE.SWjrxCHUlZgjnbPKh1VjBFmdzzvuq69NAF6GubOeCUg&dib_tag=se&keywords=small+eyelets&qid=1750424228&sr=8-7

how about brazing brass using brass rods? for brazing small parts, you dont need a torch. i use a mini butane torch. the brass rod comes in all gages, even wire form. flux is important. here is a nice article how to braze... https://weldingproperty.com/how-to-braze-brass/

i love zona razor saws and bought each one, even the one that has a few replaceable blades in the kit... that key hole blade is amazing! tpi depends on what you're cutting.

when you fabricated the posts, why werent they all made the same size or follow the plans more accurately? the dremel may be the best answer to take them down. but after making them all even with the shortest ones, will they then all be too short? how about removing them and redo it correctly? it wouldnt be too hard to take m off if sanding is knocking them off.