Yesterday I stopped by the local metal shop and picked up more 1/4" aluminum. Then I found some time in the afternoon so I cut a piece out of it to use as the lever. Remember when I said I couldn't find the material I thought I already had? yeah... I have a story about that.
When I'm working on something and I misplace a wrench or whatever, I will sometimes take another wrench and mimic what I've just done to see where that wrench naturally ends up when I set it down. Sounds stupid but it works sometimes.
So there I am cutting the aluminum I just bought. I had to buy a cut-off that was a lot bigger than what I need, so I chopped a section out of it. Once it was free, I reached over and set it down on the tray under my lathe... directly on top of the stuff I said I couldn't find. Yes, I literally set the new aluminum on top of the old stuff I couldn't find.
I should have more than enough 1/4" aluminum now. Two different alloys I've noticed, so I've got that going for me.
Back to the subject at hand, I hacked out the basic shape, and decided that using spacers underneath the mount would be easier than trying to bend the lever. I get back some of the offset I had reduced by moving the lever behind the mount, but so be it. I
The middle section is pretty much done except for fitting the bearing. The front is close to done, I'll tweak it after I position the peg. The rear part is still very rough, I'm not sure where I want the actuator to attach. When that geometry gets finalized I'll trim it down.
A shot of the spacers. Lathes come in very handy BTW!
It bothers me that the footpeg has nothing to index it's orientation. I'm considering slotting the base and putting a pin in the mount, but maybe I'm worried about nothing? Once the lever is done I'll torque everything down and see how I feel about it then. In the mock up stages (with the peg not tightened down) the peg kept rotating and folding when I put any weight on it. Not good...