Jody - Regarding your question about stainless for your project: I have not had much experience working with stainless, but what little I have had has all been bad. This may say more about my fairly limited machining experience than anything else, but I found work hardening to be a real problem.
Take a look at this chart for some idea of how easy it is to machine various metals:
You might consider 1144 stressproof. You can look up various alloys on SpeedyMetals and get more information on typical uses.
https://www.speedymetals.com/s-108-cold-finished.aspx
