Part eight- How I made my long arm quilting machine, cutting the machine in half

      I am now done removing all parts. It is time to make a jig to hold the head in place. The head needs to be at the same height  and the exact same place. The needle needs to go in to the needle hole on the needle plate and not hit anything. It also needs to be the right height or the timing will be off. I am not a machinist, so how do I make one?  After lots of thoughts on this I came up with this way that worked for me.

 I had a few shelf brackets laying around. I drilled holes in the brackets as well as my machine. I drilled them in the neck and bed of the machine. I used cobalt drill bits on this part. You need to ware safety glasses, if drilling you always should. I started with a smaller drill bit then used the that right size. The size depends on the size screws you are using. I used some left over aluminum screws that was for the screen room. I don't remember the size. I put four screws on each bracket 2 on top 2 on the bottom. A little bit of hindsight I should have sanded all the paint off  first.  It took me at least a week of looking at it before I cut it in half. I took a hack saw and went from the top to the bottom. I started in the center of the neck, just eye balling it and cut neck and the shaft too, after all I could not get the shaft out. I then turned the machine on its side and cut the bed in half. No going back now.   I bought a steel plate 12 inches long but it was only 4 inches wide. I needed 7 inches wide, so I had them cut one 3 inches by 12 inches. I bought a 3 inch steel pipe had it cut to 18 inches long. The pipe needed to fit over the arm of the machine. The front at the head is a little big which I filled in with the putty weld. The back by the neck was to small so I used a angle grinder to shave it down. Safety first, ware safety glasses.  It fits good. Now I laid the steel plates down and found I need the machine on a box. So I used some bed slates we had and made a box 28 by 7 1/2. I had to cut groves in two places, in the back, with a jig saw so it would fit in. Once the machine was flat my still plates could lay flat. I am sorry I don't have more pictures, But I had lost all my pictures when my phone broke. Except these 3 I had on my kindle.                                                                                          Next part welding and screw every thing down.