Well, we’re off! Spent the day clearing the workshop ready to get started, and trying to decide where to begin. The bed casting had already been mostly machined, so I spent a while measuring it up to check all well. Bruno had mentioned that it was “mostly” OK, a few minutes found that all was well, except that the main bearing housing was 1 3/4 instead of 1 5/8’s..Not catastrophic, but it has implications. The next parts to address are the columns, and there I found my first dimensional error on the drawings (the offest from the cross-head slideways to the front of the foot is shown a 1 5/16 instead of 1 15/16!).

This also points to a need to adjust the column setting jig to accomodate the changed main bearing housing – so the first metal to be cut is the removing a 16th from the face of the jig… so we have certainly begun! 🙂