OK! The bed has been ground! It should be here on Friday....then the fun begins!

The bed was a mess. There was .007" of wear on the front way....the rear way was higher than the front way...which means it was machined that way in 1951...Neither of the saddle ways were straight and the gib way....the one underneath on the back of the bed that the saddle gib bears against was out of parallel by .003". Additionally the V ways were not 90 degrees.
But all the flaking was there!

.....which means it was machined...and flaked.., but not scraped for alignment...ever!
So much for Southbend quality!.....
All has been corrected...everything...I've been told .....is parallel to .0004" over the 54" length.
That'll do
Now the scraping begins....saddle first.
I have some mods to do to the saddle and the tailstock...and the bench...patience.
Dave