John, I said mine was an X2, but actually I have the Chester Conquest as well! Your reply is really interesting and I guess in some way I was loading my question with the fact that I can`t imagine a stronger column would do anything! I`ve used mine for fly cutting, gear cutting and general milling and at the tollerences I expect from the machine due to other features, I just can`t imagine this mod would give me any benefits. I could be wrong....
Chris
HaHa, I am so happy you and JR brought this up. i.e. ...Strengthening the column imho does nothing to improve the machine when used as designed...

Now comes one of the real reasons why this happened......About two years ago, a particular person with no mechanical knowledge took advice from a seller who also had no knowledge (not me), and wrote an article in a well known publication. This made me, for one, very angry to say the least!

, and my opinion was colourfully stated to the editor...even though I was not selling the X2 at that time. The editor did some editing to avoid collective damaging actions being taken by parties effected, but a little too late. Obviously what ever is written in this "respected" publication has to be true...doesn't it?, and the newbies obviously follow what is said......so, the rest is perception as you have noted...
To deal with this, "we" the sellers have to come up with what the market wants. Simples