At this point there was 0.1mm difference in the height of the DA saddle casting and my scratched up one from nickel so I popped it in the mill for one last skim and removed the last 0.1mm. The saddle casting is now 0.7mm deep in the centre and that makes the bottom of the smokebox 0.3mm below the frame tops.

Now it was time to sit it on a sheet of toughened glass in lieu of not having a surface plate and checking with my height gauge to see if the smokebox is level.

Yeay!! It sits dead level.

In the last two you can just see that the smokebox is lower than the frames – just.

Now I just need to get the secondary saddle to fit and ultimately fasten it together. For now, a darkened room beckons…