Progress

I thought I'd post a shot of Travis before I cut him up.

Armature

Here are some shots of a new armature I built. I have decided due to my current schedule and upcoming deadlines that I need to being working on two pieces at a time. It's going to get pretty tight in my studio but I think it will come with its share of advantages. I also worked out some of the kinks in my last armature design.
I rotated the post 90 degrees to slim it's profile when working from behind it, which also helps to better support the insertion rods. I hamered flat the ends of the rods by forging them using one of the burner ports of an active fusion pot kiln around cone 1 as my heat source. I clamped a piece of angle iron to a cinder block to function as a marring surface, which worked out quite well. I need the ends to be flat so that I can clamp onto them for easy twisting removal.
I included a photo of a wooden handle I fabricated to serve this purpose.