Miter Gear Box Continued

I'm pressing in the bearings here so I can use the center of them to indicate from. Yes I could have used the bored hole in the aluminum block without the bearings in it but doing it this way eliminates any possible error.
 

The two side plates line up very well with the bearing block but I wanted to make sure they were exactly the same size and location before I put any holes in them. And to do this I'll be taking a minimum clean-up cut on the front and back surfaces. Also notice the small dots in the upper corners of the housing. I put one dot each on the left side (1/2" plate and bearing block) and two dots on the right side. This way I won't get them mixed up when working with them later.
 

Once I had both sides machined it was time to check if the bearing was on center or not. To do this I'll be using my granite surface plate, a surface gage and a .0005 indicator. After checking It was very close and only off center .001" so I marked the high side and re-cut it again. I rechecked it after the second cut and the bearing was exactly on center so now it's time to bore some bearing holes for the miter gears.
 

I'm finding the center of the bearing here because the shaft for the miter gears needs to be at this exact location. Once I found my center, I zeroed out my digital readout in the Y direction (front to back). This is critical because the less error here the better. Now it's time to remove the side plates and bore some holes. If this is confusing to you, it should make sense in the next few pictures.
 

After I removed the plates from the bearing block, I turned them on their sides and clamped them together. This was to make sure both bearing holes were in the same location. And by clamping on the same surface that I just indicated from (above picture), the holes will be in the right spot in my Y direction (front to back). As for the X dimension (side to side),  I had to calculate where they needed to be based on the size of the gears.
 

This is what it looks like once I put the bearings in along with the gears. I left myself an out here by putting a spacer behind the upper gear which is just a thick washer. This way I can either make a new one or shim this one till I get the correct backlash. And I'll do the same thing on the other gear too. Next I'll need to install some retainer clips on each end of the plain shaft along with one clip at the front of the shaft with the keyway.
 

With the miter gears close to working now, it's time to make a bottom plate for the gear housing. I'm drilling and tapping four 1/4-20 screws to hold it on. Notice I placed tape on all the bearings so nothing gets into them. Just playing it safe here.