Mini Lathe Traveling Steady on the Cheap

Needed to wing a (zero-budget, again) traveling steady together for thread cutting and hob making,
I started out with a 15 mm aluminium plate lying around in the workshop at my job.
Sketched up an improvised drawing and went to the bandsaw:
[Here an unloadable pic would've gone. Measures: 150 mm high by 92 wide- 60 mm hole: max 32 mm stock]

Some cutting, milling and fitting of the fastening bolts made it fit the crosslide rigidly.
Center drilled, and mounted a 50 mm carbide hole cutter in the 4-jaw, and revved it to about 250 rpm, whilst spraying some methylated spirits on.
The lathe grunted at the load, and my installed ammeter flickered towards its top end, as I fed the plate by the tailstock quill:

Attachment 29769

Finished up the hole by chucking an adjustable fly cutter in steps to 60 mm, rinse and repeat.
Then back to the bandsaw and belt sander to get it to shape.
Couldn't resist in also trying a jeweling when at the drill press-
a first for me - but I really should've resisted... What the heck.

Not having any fingers material on hand, but different brass leftovers,
I found a few discarded, heavy duty electrical plug pins of 16 mm OD free-cutting brass,
of which 2 were cut down and turned to 72 mm length, 16 mm dia heads, and a 7 mm shank.
These were milled flat as to not turn, and also to stay in the rest, as the yoke
presses a tiny brass cylinder to fix the finger when in use.

Attachment 29770 [Here a turned-over pic of same should've been, showing off the fancy-pants handles]

Simple to attach instead of my PC glass chip guard (good to have), easy to align,
and non-problematic in use - not even interfering with the lathe's real tight chip guard.
The wide brass fingers hold up well against chips/ swarf over time.
Setting the cutting tool before or after the fingers is easily done thru the compound:

Attachment 29771 Attachment 29772

At bottom of left pic you also can glimpse DIYSwede's WideWayWipers: extruded Al channel, cut, ground and drilled to hold a piece of well-oiled felt, instead of the chinese rubber squeeges seen in top pic.
In another post I'll divulge the secret recipe for DIYSwede's Microbrewed ISO 68 Way OIL.