June 2018

The steering boss does not sit squarely to the steering column support.
I pondered over all kinds of solutions , shimming out the top, making a clamp to hold it steady to the support etc. - mainly all kludges or bodges.

At Christmas I got a 3D printer from the kids, after printing loads of trivia to
a) get used to the printer and its quirks and
b) the novelty factor of printing them
decided to move on and use it for what I wanted it more for - prototyping etc.
Another recent purchase was a bevel meter, it was sold as an aid to set up compound saws where by you zero the meter on the saw table then because it is magnetic attach it to the saw blade and you can set the angle of the blade accurately.

Any way I set it on the steering column and zero it
I then set it on the column support and measure the angle - it turns out to be 91.3 degrees.
So I know the face of the steering boss needs material removed at an angle of 1.3 degrees to square it up with the column.

To confirm this, and this is where the 3D printer comes in, I measure the boss and model it in Fusion 360 with the 1.3 degree modification, I then print this out and offer it up to the steering column to verify may calculations etc.
Success.

Now to machine the boss.
I do not have a mill or for that fact a rotary table so the best method I could come up with to machine the end was to measure the 3D model thicknesses
and then mount the boss in the lathe skewed such as the end face was out by the same amount as the thick and thin edges of the 3D model.
I use old broken feeler gauges to support the boss and create the required skew.
I run the lathe quite slow and taking light cuts achieve the desired results.