I always love your backyard machinist's approach to "getting stuff done", Dave. Most of us don't have access to heat treaters with giant ovens, multi million dollar plants, etc. So, yeah, dig a big hole, dump some charcoal in there, light 'er up, and cover it. It is outside my knowledge of how well this works, frankly, but I always enjoy the alternative approaches you frequently put out. There were some good posts you had recently regarding the amount of shrinkage and expansion on different material. I printed out those charts and put them in my booklet of, "before you take a hammer, idiot, try this." Sure, I know the fundamentals of this, but now I have it backed up by some tangible charts to understand how much tolerance is available...
I agree with with Chiptosser and I simply don't think for a moment that most posters here have even got near to 'making a milling machine'
You can download old copies of Machinery's Handbook
Like MrMetric say if you like building machine tools go for it, or you will be wasting time and and get frustrated and may even loose enthusiasm. if you were close by and with the strong pound you could buy a working Bridgeport from me for thirteen hundred pounds incl. vice and feed on X axis.
Concrete or rather bricks held together with concrete building have been move without cracking the concrete or plaster, also brittle, in the building. My parents two floor home was moved about 5 blocks without a single crack in the home. Picked up off a foundation, rolled over a basement, onto the street, the 5 blocks, off the street, and over a new basement. Then set down with in 1/4 inch of the ideal location. Moving concrete structure takes care.
