Don't worry too much about the top-slide damage. Can easily be welded up with a bit of care. Arc works fine using the old fashioned field expedient method of doing smallish sections using a small rod on minimum current and tapping whilst it cools to minimise stress build up. Small rod at low current pretty much eliminates carbon migration which makes the repaired area very hard and crack prone. Colchester iron generally responds well to this technique. But never do it on an area likely to be seriously stressed. Hardly worth welding up if the top is still flat.
My P&W model B was much more distressed and the top seriously bowed by using spanners of ever increasing length in a vain hope of keeping the Dickson tool post rigidly mounted.
Distress, worse than it looks.
End of welding, 4 or 5 layers on top. It was approaching 0.1" bowed!
Cleaned up to properly flat top and filed to OK on front and corners. Plan was to paint and fill but we had a job to do that wouldn't fit on the 1024 so straight into service. Built up Tee nut and smart new centre stud for Dickson T2 tool post
The two counterbored holes in the Tee nut are to take M6 caphead screws to lock the Tee nut in place if need be. As it turned out screwing the essential spacer ring that sits inside the recess of a Dickson tool post to prevent bowing the topside top tightly down the bottom thread of the stud provided ample holding power.
Slotted top slide and Tee nut fixing is versatile but if you don't provide a way to lock the Tee nut in place the tool post will shift if you loosen it for any reason, such as rotating it to give the tool a better approach angle, which rather defeats the object. As bought the tool post stud was retained by a square plate approximately the same size as that provided by Pratt & Whitney to retain the standard American (lantern tool) post. This plate was very little bigger than the recess in the bottom of the Dickson post so the crudely made stud was basically pulling pretty much agains thin air. No wonder the top of the slide bowed.
Pretty sure two standard steel bar sections will fit the Colchester slot so a built up Tee nut can be made by screwing and gluing together. Glue is important. Use one of the high strength cyanoacrylates. Drawing of the second one I made for the P&W below as may give some inspiration. Hafta change dimensions to suit of course. PM me if you want the stud drawing too. (First version of Tee nut and stud made about a week after the P&W was settled into the shop worked well enough for 12 years but eventually I decided to properly sort the top-slide damage and do it all tickety-boo.)
Clive
