Designing the Saddle

Hello folks,

Saddle - First Try
Saddle – First Try

the last weeks I’ve been strechted pretty thin between my girlfriend, our kittens and deadlines at work. However, yesterday evening I managed to squeeze in half an hour of SketchUp modeling, followed by another hour just until now.
I’m working on the connecting frame between the cylinders and the smokebox – help me out here, how is this part called? thanks to Wallace from the railroad-line.com forums I now know that this part is called the “smokebox saddle”.

Saddle exploded and highlighted
Saddle exploded and highlighted

At the same time I’m trying to figure out how to assemble the actual model, that is: which part is going to get brazed, which screwed, which component can be disassembled, etc.
The image on the right shows how the new component looks in an exploded view. Right now I think I’m going to braze all these parts. The lower rectangular frame will get two screw threads on each side, so I can attach the main frame bars onto them. The screws are going to be hidden by the cylinders later.

If you spot any logical errors or have any suggestions on how to improve this part, please let me know!

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