Managed to get back on the pickup last weekend, I had been fed up with kicking the wheels around every time I wanted to move it so first job was a steering column so a rummage through my scrap and I came up with a piece of 1.5" diameter stainless tube and a few offcuts of aluminium bar, I had some 3/4" round on the shelf so we were good to go

First job was to dummy up with an old steering wheel and measure up 28" needed and the bit I found was 28.5 Trued up the ends in the lathe and I had an outer

I had planned to use 3/4" needle roller bearings so I turned up a couple of bearing carriers in aluminium to be a press fit into the tube.










Next I turned my attentions to the inner shaft, I like to use 3/4"DD uj's so the end of the inner was machined with 2 flats on the mill.
and a groove for the securing bolt.









I machined up a decorative finisher for under the wheel mounting hub (which I forgot to photograph but is basically a 1.5" x 5/8 steel hub welded to the end of the inner)








Heres the finished column, not too shabby for an outlay of £15 ($20) including bearings Next job a custom column drop.





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