On the way to the workbench I passed a flock of newly arrived tail lamps making their way towards their traditional nesting habitat; to whit some buffer stops. Beautiful plumage.

And so session number 2 with the signal kit. The next step in the instructions is to make the arm. All quite straightforward, but in the absence of any non-soldery pins to hold things square I did this by lying it face down on a bit of wood with a hole drilled for end of the pivot wire. Then looking down from above I lined up the other hole by sight, holding it with the point of a needle file while soldering. It worked. Hoorah!

Next is the bit of tube that forms the pivot for the arm. Following the instructions to make a jig I reached for the 2mm drill bit. And then reached a bit more. Nowhere. Never mind, to Plan B. Well actually it was kind of Plan A as I did this on the previous kit - after marking the place I filed, with a round needle file, a small notch in the post. The cut to length tube and post get a dollop of flux and the tube placed. I guess it's surface tension or something (possibly quantum) but tube either wants to 'stick' parallel to the post or sit in the dimple at 90', i.e. where I want it. A blob of solder and done. And guess what is in the photo, top left...

Next the butt, which is what the wider bit of the post at the bottom is called I now know, was chamfered at the top to get the slopey join and soldered.

And then the 1/8in hole is made in the base plate (this is kind of optional). Being of the metric persuasion I don't have that drill, but 3mm bit and a couple of minutes with needle file did just fine. I then used my square (one of my favourite tools, sad isn't it) to get it square and soldered away.

The instructions suggest cutting a slot for the ladder in the base next; rightly or wrongly I went for a couple holes because Monday or something.

Next is the counter balance. This is simple enough, but when soldering the bracket part of the assembly to the post I used a paper casket between the arm and the bracket so it didn't get soldered too. This is just a bit of paper added to the sandwich in the appropriate place to stop the solder creeping along the rod and fixing to the crank, just tear it out afterwards. Now spot the mistake...

Yep - counter intuitively the balance weights (I opted for no extra weights, as the supplied ones appear somewhat large) stick out to the front of the signal, which is fine. But on the other side. Then did it again. And then on the third attempt got it right. I hope.

And now it's brew time.