Compound Issues

The compound and the tool post slide both had some issues I had to deal with. The first thing that came up on dis-assembly of these parts was that the end of the compound slide was pretty well chewed up.  I can only assume that someone had the tool post slide back far enough to expose this area and had run it into the chuck. For some reason someone had drilled a hole into this area and inserted a pin. The end effect was to keep the tool post slide from extending over this chewed up area. Why? I have no idea. The problem was that with this pin installed, I could not remove the tool post slide. I chose to cut the pin off with an abrasive disc in my angle grinder. This way at least the rest of the pin was filling in the hole at the chewy end. I tried to cut it off with a bit left over to file down but I ended up not being as clean as I wanted. I need more patience.  However I was finally able to remove the tool post slide.

One of the first things I noticed even on the pictures on eBay was that the tool post slide was evidently brazed back together at some point. With my limited machining knowledge I can only come up with one scenario in which it would be possible to break the slide at this location. I think someone over-tightened the tool post which put too much pressure at the T slot and the cast iron snapped. It was brazed together, however none of the excess was ever machined off. I decided to grind off the majority of the excess with my angle grinder. Then I went to my stationary belt sander to dress the rest, going slowly and checking for square the entire way. It may not be as precise as it should have been but I don't have a mill yet.

How will these issues affect the overall accuracy of the lathe when I get it running? I have no idea. I could imagine the chewy edge of the compound not supporting the tool slide as well as possible, which could result in some flex.

I'm not sure how a slightly out of square tool slide might affect things either. I'd imagine maybe some special set ups that use the sides for reference might suffer. Until I start learning how to use the machine I probably won't know. Can I fix these things later? Probably. But for now it's on to the next mess...