John,

Many thanks for that... its the words 'competent machinist' that gives me cause for concern I'm not sure i'm that yet - I can competently turn perfectly good blocks of alloy into something resembling wirewool and scrap...:heehee: but i am learning still.... you can see some of my 'learning' experiences on this thread... its the bigger brother of that lathe that I want to do a repour and bore out on, as discussed in post 73 onward of that thread - I'd be interested in your opinion on the best way to approach the problem...