Jonathan - am I correct in thinking that all the oil pipes go direct to the sliding carriages/ball nuts? Presumably you also had to be careful about routing pipes and allowing enough slack for movement.

And for anyone who does not want or does not have the facilities to make the components, Arc Euro Trade (and probably plenty of other places) sell all the bits. I have a central lubrication system on my vertical mill, and it does mean that the slideways get lubricated much more often than when I had to do it all manually. It's a thought...