Hi,johnny-yes l do find your article of use and no doubt others between you and the other guy you were conversing with planted the seed of what my dirty unkept lathe can look like with a bit of hard graft lm logging in each day awaiting you updating the dairy l work in engineering where we make tin printers so i,ll be getting the paint from work theres a dark blue and a light grey think it will be grey lm going to strip the lathe right down hopefully clean everything reoil,regrease and fun begins reassemble l was thinking when l have gears out, l can get them blackodized what do you think will it benefit the gears when you think about these boxfords must have at least40yrs grime inside cant be improving things hyavnt had a lathe before so its a learning curve and a large bit of listening-take care-onecut