A Tale of Two Cross Slides

Hi Folks,

Some of you have been following along with my 2 year odyssey to rebuild a 1957 square dial 10ee in a separate thread. This is a different sort of update to that and I thought it'd be worth starting a new thread to get a broader set of opinions.

When I first tore down the lathe to clean it, the scoring in the ways of the cross slide and the broken/rebrazed gib were evident. At the time there was a similar vintage cross slide on ebay for not much so I bought the whole thing and put it on the shelf.

Now it is time to decide what to do! The "original" CS:

• Has deep scoring on the ways
• Has a fair amount of chuck damage
• Has a damaged gib (and had a brass shim installed as well which I doubt is factory)
• Still has a lot of original scraping marks still visible despite the scoring
• Has a (beat up) dovetail for a rear toolpost of some sort
• Has a lot of scraping marks on the top of the CS, which I have never seen. Are those original? What purpose would they even serve?

The "ebay" CS:

• Is generally in better shape/exhibits no scoring
• Has an intact gib
• Also has zero original scraping still visible (even on the gib)

...which one should I use?

I am inclined to go with the "original" one; the dings give it some character, and I think the existence of scraping marks despite the scoring will give me better results, and to use the intact gib from the ebay version.

What do you all think? Are my instincts correct? Also, were the gibs custom fitted or can I swap them without causing unnecessary wear? Would it be sacrilege to take 0.150" off the headstock side of the slide with a fly cutter to remove some of the old chuck scars?

Thank You,
jim

On my CVA the dovetail is how the travelling steady attaches.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

my novice recommendations are:
you need to blue each one on a surface plate to determine how bad (or good) they are and with this info can make a better decision on which one to use.
i would used the flattest cross slide and the gib without damage.
you will need to scrape-in the gib.
you can make a gib if needed. it's kinda a PITA but not really that hard.
i've used a surface grinder to clean up the casting from crashes. i like having the top and sides true and square to a few tenths. I doubt that is possible with a fly cutter, but obviously your call.

I like the original cross slide too, the rear toolpost dovetail is a nice feature. However, Everettengr’s suggestion to evaluate both on a surface plate is a good idea. You can check and see if the bottom is flat, and you can also use an indicator to check and see if the top is parallel to the bottom. I would recommend against grinding the top of the cross slide At this point for a couple of reasons. One is that the fit of the rear tool slide dovetail would be affected. Second is you should fit the cross slide first, maybe the saddle has some wear and needs to be scraped flat, and until you have the cross slide fitted to the saddle I would leave the top of it alone. If you grind it first you may be making work for yourself later, because you want the top to be parallel with the bottom, otherwise when you rotate the compound the tool height will change.

We have a forum on scraping and reconditioning machines. Take some more pictures and of the top of the saddle too, then ask in that forum . There are a few professional rebuilders that write in the forum, so you will get a pro's advice.