Back on subject. I dither around

for a while sifting the good advice I had been given and in the end I decided to go for the build up of braze technique, thanks for the cast iron tip Wayne from the Practical Machinist forum.
My welder pal put a good big blob of braze on for me.
DSCN0238 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
I then on a big ugly grinding wheel removed the large portion of the braze.
DSCN0239 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
I was a bit scared of grinding away the piece I was trying to rescue and I don’t have a linisher so I improvised a grinding fence on my unsophisticated grinding wheel
DSCN0240 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
I fixed the fence, a piece of ¾ square, using a tool maker’s clamp, and a dummy work piece and a piece of 0.015 shim against the side of the wheel to ensure a close pass with out removing metal from the gib itself.
DSCN0241 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
The next stage was to draw file down to the base metal without removing too much. Because I was dead scared of overdoing it so I treated myself to new files. One new thing I learned is that the smaller the file the finer the teeth for as given cut. In other words a Number 3 cut 4” file is a lot finer than a Number 3 cut 8” file. I always thought a Number 3 cut was a number 3 cut.
The 4” file came in very handy for filing the groove to size.
DSCN0242 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
Lo and behold the adjusting screw collar fitted nice and tightly.

DSCN0245 by
Anzaniste, on Flickr
Thanks to everyone’s advice and encouragement I now have a top slide that works again. I’m still kicking myself for having bust it in the first place and losing a couple of days before I get back into action again. I only started out to clean the lube system, not rebuild the whole lathe!!!!!
