Since I'm using a mitre gear arrangement with a side-mounted handle (as opposed to the rear-mounted handle specified in the plans), I needed to take some care in getting everything lined up correctly.
To make sure the short crank handle shaft wouldn't get too wobbly, I wanted to come up with an arrangement that would have two separated bearings to keep the shaft in alignment. Since the side of the organ is less than a quarter inch thick, I knew I needed to beef it up a little, and fortunately I had the circular base of the wooden candlestick I used for the handle.
I cut out a brass circular backing plate, and drilled the pieces to accommodate the shaft, the bearing and the mounting bolts.
Here's what it looked like once I got the wood stained & shellacked, the brass polished, and the shaft ground down in one spot to accommodate a set screw in the handle:
To fix the handle to the shaft, I drilled a hole to fit a set screw in through the underside of the handle arm. I also used a drill with a small bit to gouge out a slot to hold a nut, so the screw would have something sturdy to grab onto. Here's what it looked like before I cut the screw to the proper length and tidied up the gouged and unstained drilled areas:
For the interior bearing, I made a mount out of hardwood, and once I got everything lined up correctly, I bolted it all together:
