The bilge pump supports need to be angled to allow the pump to sit flush under the lid while not having the handle bang into the woven door right next to it. To adjust the position of the lever during the throw of the lever, the bilge pump needs to be installed on an angle. Setting it on an angle means that everything else must be angled to compensate and accommodate.
As you can see, the limiting factor to any bevel is the vertical components of this locker. They limit how much each support can be rotated in relation to the dimensions needed for the bilge pump.
To accommodate the bevel, the small brass screws were removed and re-drilled into the new position. The inboard support needed to be sawed a bit to allow the board to rotate in the box. The supports were rotated until they were set on an equal incline, allowing the bilge pump to sit flat on the boards with an inboard tilt. Since the pump is large, heavy, and bulky, I chose to use a small scrap of 2x4 that is much lighter and would allow me to evaluate the incline without much fuss.
Once the boards were aligned with each other, pilot holes were made to mark the locations of the through bolts. With the pump removed, the holes were drilled out all the way to allow the insertion of 1/4" through bolts.
The reason the frames need to be beveled is because the bolts need as much material to grab onto. If I through bolted at an angle on vertical frames, the bolt would exit the side of the frame and be severely weakened. By rotating the frames, the through bolts exit the bottom squarely and securely.
Above the frame, the head of the bolt is supported by a finish washers to be a bit more lenient with angulation of the bolt against the bronze flange of the pump body.
The tiny brass screws that are supporting the frames at the moment are by no means strong enough to support the forces that the bilge pump will exert on them while operating. These tiny screws are simply being used to help position the frames during the construction process.
