...and sourced a Scotch-Brite wheel locally, and made a mounting adaptor for my grinding wheel on his lathe when it turned out to have a non-standard radius, as I said, very helpful guy.

I'm having one more attempt at reinforcing my home-built bending brake to do my own spar flanges, although Dave (another scratch builder who just ordered his plans yesterday) told me he has a friend with a monster 4m brake in Brisbane as a backup plan.

I've bought a 3m galvanised steel window lintel and some lengths of 1/4" 2024-T3 plate that I'm going to radius with the router and bolt onto the lintel - this is my new top clamp for the brake. I've straightened up the edge of my bench with a straight edge and thickened epoxy, and I'm welding reinforcements onto the swiveling bit to make it stiffer.

For the flute recesses I used a round file and finished with 60 grit paper - on maple forms with a good file it is a really quick and pleasant way to do it.  George reckons Portugal make the best files - I can recommend the set he sold to me.

Hmm, for some reason when I use the 3.2mm (1/8") router radius bit on my 1/4" plate, I get a big flat spot between the rounded bits... confused. No more time this weekend, will try to work out what's happening.