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There's not much you can do about lack of bed straightness longitudinally. It is what it is. Shimming the feet at the tailstock end can take up twist but it won't take out a longitudinal bow. What levelling is doing in essence is taking the bed back to having the feet sitting in the same plane...

Generally in the context of lathe bed setting up, to "level" the bed means to set the bed straight by using a precision level. I think that is what we are talking about in relation to the lathe itself. It doesn't have to be actually level. For instance, if the bubble sits two marks off level at...

The Myford ML7 User's Manual, widely available in free PDF form on the net, has about the best run through on setting a small lathe bed level. But trying to get the bench level to the same sort of precision is a waste of time. In fact, many deliberately set the bench off-level so the coolant...

Yes, you can build your own model for your own purposes but not post the plans on a website or make the models and sell them as a commercial venture.

First thing you need to get clear is that taper with a tailstock centre is a whole different issue from taper without a tailstock centre. The first one you need to get right is the taper without tailstock centre. After you have that right, then you can adjust the tailstock centre to turn a...

Not if the bed is twisted. The bed needs to be leveled first. Always. It is the reference surface off which all other measurements are taken.

There is not much point in chasing your tail trying to get a flexible sheet metal stand level to precision tolerances. Sit it on the floor. Set packing under it as you have done to get it as close as you easily can with no gaps between the bottom mounting surfaces of the cabinet and the floor...

If it is a convex tool bit you want to make -- in order to turn a groove in the job -- rough it out by hand on the bench grinder, using a radius gauge as a template. Then finish to fit the gauge with a diamond file or abrasive slip stone. Even a bench oil stone as used for sharpening knives and...

I've been using cheapo lathe tooling inserts off Aliexpress without problems for some time now. Quite surprising really. But I figure there must be a lot of machining going on in all those factories in China and they probably aren't stopping production to change rubbish inserts all the time...

You might try posting on Practical Machinist forum. More guys on there working with fullsized automotive machine tools like the Kwikway.

And in its day, the cheap but good quality Myford ML7 brought affordable home machining to the masses. The ML7 was cheaper than its predecessor, the M-type Myford/Drummond and in later years was considerably cheaper than a Boxford or a Raglan Little John. How it ever picked up the "Rolls Royce...

You can probably get even greater performance by using synthetic grease in the bearings instead of dino grease.

I've built model steam engines, stirling engines and a precision dividing head entirely on the lathe, with a vertical milling slide attachment. The main limitation is you can't mill large or long objects because the cross-slide travel is limited when compared with the table travel on a mill. But...

Wow, that's a beauty. Very nice work indeed.

When I worked in machine shops -- when Noah was still a junior midshipman -- generally speaking jobs with tolerances of .001" and upwards were done on lathes and mills. Jobs to be done to tolerances of less than .001" were done on cylindrical grinders and surface grinders. In the home shop...

A quick touch with some fine grade emery paper at the end of the job is the absolver of many sins.

Looks like a good sized mill for the home shop. You should get plenty of good use out of it. It will be worth the space it takes up.

Youch. Hope it heals up well for you. I never have felt comfortable around woodworking machinery , having grown up on metal working machinery where hands are firmly on the control handles, well away from the whirring parts.

There's one of those covers on eBay Aust. for $30 right now. Almost as cheap as buying glue and bog to fix the old one.

Possibly some kind of fine feed mechanism attached to the end of the leadscrew through that hole in the cover? Looks like a previous owner was into a few upgrades so may have done something there, with the traditional windscreen wiper motor, or a reduction drive from the countershaft pulley area?