Thanks for taking the time to post folks, very interesting and some great ideas. As usual greywolf kicks the ball out of the park
I have ordered some of the Aluminium rods and will have a go with these, if I can get the hang of them they would be ideal to keep in a pannier on a journey, just in case something like Mr Rat's recent cracked mounting happens when away from access to a welding or repair resource.
I will also get some of the rivet nuts and learn to use them, I can think of many uses for these straight away.
Greywolf, thanks again for the photos, it's great to see how others have approached projects I am just getting started on (the GPS mount).
I can't believe that the biggest hurdle in all this is getting reliable supplies of raw materials. Spend this morning just trying to find a local supplier of aluminium sheet (trying to support local business and all that) only to find that the best deals were online cause the local dealers wanted silly money for items.
Outstanding feedback again folks!