Ron,
You could make the links from brass also. I like the brass and the wood. I think it adds a nice vintage tool look to it. Sort of like an old plane. If I wood have had the brass for the links I'd made would have used it. Some nice left over side and back wood would look good and work too. Nice to know about the pins and bolts. I'll take the nylon nuts and bolts back. I thought about putting little set screws into the links to set the pins too.
I'm going to scribe the saddle location into it also, Charles Fox and Frank Ford both do that.
JJ, I like the mill. The limitations is pretty much the size. I don't think it's for any heavy steel milling. I've just used it with brass so far. I also changed the travels rods out to the ones that are .050" per turn. I think they come with a 1/16" per turn. There are all kinds of attachments you can get for it at :
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/defaul ... gAodVxCexA There are kits for CNC conversion also. I would like to have a mini lathe also some day. And a CNC router and a ....