K&T Project: Stop Rod Cylinder Not Indexing

I started a small project today on my K&T #3. The stop rod cylinder wouldn't index and the stop rods were so gummed up that I couldn't turn most of the clamp nuts or dials by hand. I wasn't sure what the issue was, but I figured it was probably just dried up gunk or some corrosion on the barrel. After using an impact driver to loosen the the four bolts holding the cover on, I took the whole assembly off and started cleaning it in some kerosene. It looked like it was mostly just dried up grease or oil, and the ratcheting mechanism loosened up and started working without having to take the bottom cover off. I cleaned the machined surfaces with some super-fine steel wool and kerosene and started working the threads on the stop rods with a steel brush. I unthreaded any of the stop nuts and dials that I could. Some of the threads are damaged so I'm going to bring the rods to work and chase them with a 1/2-20 die before removing the rest. Some of the rods are also bent pretty bad, so I'm going to try to straiten them at work this week using the press. I put the assembly back on the mill sans stop rods, and cycled it 20-30 times after adding some oil. It works great now! I'll take it apart again eventually to clean and grease the ratcheting handle; maybe when I decide to strip and paint the mill


Parts getting ready to clean.


Cleaned up and ready to go back on the mill.


In situ.