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If it's a converted air compressor, maybe they left the original rings in place and rely on the oil in sump to lubricate the rings and bore?

Depends how precision they need to be and what their purpose is, so a bit more info would be helpful. But if their function is purely aesthetic or non-precision, you could simply cut the slots using a friction disc cut-off saw aka drop saw. Mark out the slots, clamp tube in vice and lower the...

The Potty Mill Engine I mentioned does not even need a vertical slide. It can all be done with lathe and drill press. The flat surface on the cylinder for the valve chest to attach to is faced off in the lathe with job held in four jaw chuck. Machining of bearing pedestals etc are also done in...

You could try putting a taper on the material before you thread it with the die, instead of just making it 1/4" all along.

The Potty Mill Engine is good starting project, all in the lathe. Drawings are available free online if you Google around. In fact featured in this thread here https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/potty-lads-and-dads-mill-engine.20650/

Depending on where you are at, a local shed or roofing supplier could probably supply you a kit for a car port of your dimensions, made to comply with local conditions and laws. Usually not much more expensive than just buying the steel and cutting it up yourself. You then erect it yourself...

Very nice. How are you venting that closed crankcase? Is it the brass fitting sticking out in front?

You have to get the right sized fixed reamers too. Some are made to provide a neat sliding fit, such as for reaming a piston pin bushing. Others are made to provide a light press fit, such as reaming a dowel hole. You have to buy the fit or tolerance reamer you want. The cheap ones don't say...

That is the rpm you would use for a 1" diameter cutter on plain mild steel. Using a 2+" cutter on EN16 you need to be down around 100rpm as Charles says. No wonder you had sparks flying!

As it's a tool he would have made himself rather than purchased you might consider it a bit of a family heirloom. Your grandkids will be mystified by an object actually MADE by some ancient ancestor, no keyboards involved.

I use adjustable reamers quite a bit, mostly older non-Chinese ones. But I usually like to drill the hole to 1/64" undersize then bore it to maybe .005" undersize and finish it with the reamer. Boring ensures the hole is round and straight and concentric with where it was intended to sit...

That formula is in one of GH Thomas's books, somewhere. But it just takes a bit of practice with setting up in the four jaw to get quicker. To help, you can set the tool on the centralized section before moving it, then wind the cross slide back by the amount of offset desired (moving further...

If one turn of the cross slide screw advances the tool by .080 that is as close as dammit to 2mm. It may be that your lathe has had a metric cross slide screw and nut fitted but kept the old imperial dial for some reason? (Myford supplied both imperial and metric screws and nuts and dials, so...

I can't see why you couldnt grind the end of the tap down as far as the first tooth, after tapping the hole with the tap as it exists now. I've ground the ends off many a tap over the years and never had a problem.

+1 on pictures. We seem to be going in circles otherwise. +1 on impossible to rotate headstock without changing taper -- unless the pivot pin is missing, broken or otherwise fubared, or not fitted to this particular model etc. A dial indicator placed each end of the headstock would reveal what...

So get two dial indicators and set the headstock spindle parallel to the bed, without that .022" offset, as already discussed. It's really not that hard once you have a second indicator telling you exactly what that headstock is doing when you turn the jacking screws. You are right that the...

Not necessarily, especially after all these years. Disregard the scribed lines and set the tailstock by turning a test piece between centres AFTER you are good and finished with setting the headstock spindle parallel to the bed ways. Meanwhile, you need to set two dial indicators on the...

Colchester uses a circle of springs to set preload on the tapered roller headstock bearings. This allows for take up for wear and also thermal expansion of the spindle etc.

Again, I'm a little confused here. You should be measuring the .002" taper per 2" with a micrometer, not a dial indicator. How are you measuring the amount of taper on the test piece after turning it? a) The circle confirms you have moved the headstock over, but if the lathe is still cutting...

Which springs are you referring to here? The ones in the headstock bearing? If so, sounds like the source of your problem is bearing related. The new springs have brought your problem down from 12 thou per inch to 1 thou per inch. Pretty good improvement there. Could it be that the bearing...