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Saving a 1943 Springfield Engine Lathe, Part 18:



After thoroughly cleaning the carriage and compound, I found no major damage apart from the aforementioned
way wear, the usual chuck marks at the corner of the cross slide, and those extra holes somebody had drilled.



While not any sort of structural issue, for aesthetic reasons I decided to fill them in.
First by cleaning out the threaded holes with a tap...



Screwing in bits of cheap 10-32 screw....



Nipping them off with a thin abrasive wheel...



And sanding down the remains. It's possible the rearmost pair- closest to the groove- may have been original holes.
As I said earlier, I'm not sure how the dust cover attaches. So when I screwed in the bits of filler, I didn't use any
loctite or adhesive, and the screws were only snug, not heavily tightened, so that if necessary,
they can be removed without further damage.



After that, it was a simple matter of a dab of paint.



And the carriage too...



And heave everything back in place for reassembly. As noted, yes, at some point I'll probably try
scraping the cross-slide, but that will come after the bed has been reground, etc.



The cross-slide nut and screw, as I've said, were both badly worn. The screw's thread had been worn noticibly thin-
as in, you can see the wear from across the street. The top shows the middle of the screw, the bottom shows an end.
The nut, however, was worn oddly, with the threads actually distorted to the point they ran well in the middle of the
thread, but had to be wrenched past the unworn portion of the screw. Thinking both would need to be replaced,
I bought a section of 3/4"-8 LH ACME rod, and a matching tap.



Turns out I got a little ahead of myself and ordered what is apparently a 'standard' ACME rod, rather than a
'precision' ACME rod. The difference between the original thread and the new piece is notable- the original is
at the bottom, the new bar at the top. The original rod has a very squared off shape, while the new piece
has slightly rounded corners and clearly has been polished (or was smoothly rolled, whichever.)






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