Surprisingly, the socket set fits rather snugly!

 

 

52 minutes ago, Jake Gully said:

Surprisingly, the socket set fits rather snugly!

If you take it you'll never need it, if you leave it at home you'll need it 😂

I brought a gaiter and trim for the gearstick back last year, but was not impressed and decided to get some 3mm stainless sheet and have ago my self.    I made the mistake of buying 304 grade which has been a challenge to machine on both the lathe and mill, despite some fresh carbide, a new end mill and plenty of cutting oil - maybe it is time to splash out for some anchor lube.

I turned it down to round, but gave up trying to bore out the ID on the lathe and then moved over to the mill and rotary table.   The stainless heated up very quickly and produced brown chips and stringy burs on the edges.   I probably would have done better with flush cooling, but it seemed a big faff for such a simple part  

The four chuck was also a pain to index, and to get an offset to allow me to drill a 6 hole pattern without fouling the jaws.   Needless to say too much of the day spent in the workshop, but in the end I was quite pleased with the end result.

The surround for the handbrake is going to take quite a bit more work and setup on the mill.   I'm really not sure I want to do this in the same material, but will have to give it some thought and consider if I want to spend £25 for 8oz of anchor lube...

 

Edited April 26Apr 26 by Jake Gully

I did a similar look for my gear stick, but cheated and used an old aluminium tax disc holder - it was a perfect fit...