The tool post arrived this morning from the US and it came straight to me without incurring any additional import/Royal Mail charges for which I made a sigh of relief.
At this point I must also publicly thank Adrian for his generosity in not only turning the replacement brake cylinder casting for me but for also slipping a couple of workshop technique books into the package when he sent it. It was/is very much appreciated.
A posting on WT wouldn't be complete without a couple of photos
Adrian's wasn't the only bit of generosity I have received in my small saga with the lathe. There was Ian with his kind offer to machine the part that I had bought in error, and again it was much appreciated.
Then last but not least a gent on another forum where I had been having a similar discussion, asked me dimensions because he had a toolpost in his shed going spare. When I confirmed with Bob (I only know his first name) that it would fit he offered to send me it FOC.
I sincerely hope that I can return a favour to you all at some point
This is what was left with a neighbour while I was at Doncaster on Saturday
It needs a small amount of work on the locking shaft to make it fit my T Nut - the thread is 9mm whereas my T nuts are 6mm so one of my first jobs will be to turn the short thread below end below down and rethread it 6mm - Adrian had also suggested that if I couldn't turn it on the lathe (I didn't have the other toolpost at the point we discussed it) I could always chop the end off then drill and tap the remainder 6mm. I could then cut the head off a 6mm bolt and epoxy it in to create the bottom part of the thread. This would have been easily achievable with the tools that I have and I had considered that I might have a go if the toolpost hadn't arrived in a reasonable timescale.
My conclusion is that despite all the doom and gloom in the wider world, there are a lot of very nice people within our world of model railways.