You can make it a lot easier for future events, the dust cover nearest the key can have a small close fitting cutout filed into it, that will allow the shaft to come out with the key still in position. As long as you keep the cutout at the top when you fit the cover into the casting, it will still do it's job of retaining oil in the bearing for as long as possible.
Thanks. Thats a good idea and makes perfect sense now I know how the oil system works. Hopefully I wont have to do it very often as I will be using the removable clamp headstock of the halifax.

Not so sure on the the bearings tho. they seemed a bit ratchety when I was cleaning them and rotating by hand but now they are back in the head stock they seem nice and smooth. Which is the best way to tell?

Do you have supplier details and specs for inner timkin bearings? and how much would you charge for the regrind? (rubber cheque book at the ready...lol)

At the moment I'm just rebuilding to make sure every thing works and fits correctly. I will then tear it down to repaint and fine tune. I presume that damaged bearings would give poor surface finnish and could be corrected later?

just out of interest to anyone repairing a halifax with atlas parts. the cross slide screw is the same size and overal length, but the halifax has a longer treaded section and therefore extra travel. I opted for the shorter atlas one as IMO it is a better set up with the adjusting nuts to take out all the slop in the system.