No! You're not the first! There was a newsletter article a few years ago and I thought I'd put it in the Tech Handbook but it seems not. It's due to corrosion between the SS bar and the alloy castings that cracks the castings. Glad nobody fell off!
There's a guy at Rossiters who can make that sort of thing and an outfit on the Airfield Ind Est who fixed my parker 21 pulpit when it let go last year.
That's at least 2 in Christchurch so there must be hundreds around the country.
Geoff
Geoff Harwood