I've tinkered with mods and conversions, but never done an actual kitless. Recently I joined the club of metal lathe owners, and trying to learn my way around the thing. For me 'firsts' are never great and rarely good, I'd say this one turned out about mediocre. The design is simple: nose cone was machined separate from the main body and press fit in. The mechanism is the bolt on the tail end, I included a small threaded bushing to 'lock' it in the retracted position. It is a little beefy at about 0.4" diameter, but I only have an M8 tap/die and didn't want to push the wall thickness too thin and start over. I learned a lot, which is what I was aiming for anyway. More to come in 2021.
(kidding of course). I've tinkered with some steel, but keeping it easy for now.