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Whilst I was waiting for the lathe to carry out cuts on the bolts I was making for the stretcher I started to clean up the bed and check it for accuracy.

It is staggering to discover even after 150 years or so that the dimensions across the bed and the gap between the bearers is so accurate I couldn't discern any fault with a vernier. Whether or not the top surface is a true flat plane I will have to wait on, but I am optimistic.

First task was to clean up the paint work for re-enameling, this turned out to be a hopeless task as the paint was either breaking down or just damn awful in the first place, nothing would cut it without binding up, so I decided to remove it all. Now this is important, most old pieces of machinery or indeed anything else painted for that matter will undoubtedly have a high lead content. The Victorians seemed to have loved the stuff, its quite surprising they didn't spread it on toast. Of course you don't want that stuff inside you, because it doesn't leave and who wants to be brain dead, not me. So power tools are out, so is paint stripper, the reason being that castings especially old ones are quite prone to having blow holes and a degree of porosity. So out comes the trusted engineers scraper, this time an old one, one I am quite happy to put to the grinder frequently.

And just to please the Health and Safety people, did I wear a dust mask... No I didn't, the reason for that is I was not going to make any dust in my workshop and have that stuff lying in wait for me. This paint was heavy, and had the consistency of dried jam, with that and working slowly and carefully I scraped away the lot. One of the troubles with castings is the crust they have, its very damaging to tools, so use an old one, then you get through the paint you will most likely like myself come to the raw casting beneath which still has casting sand embedded in it.....good bye tool edges hello grinder.........

having removed the detritus of over a century, the casting is exposed. If you look at the above photo, you can clearly see in the center a silver patch, this is lead (the metal lead), there are several small blow holes in this area, but this one must have been deemed large enough to warrant a patch up. If paint stripper had been used it would have penetrated these and stayed there, not a good thing for the future paint and a good finish, plus it could easily set up corrosion in years to come. When done I liberally cleaned the whole thing down with meths and copious amounts of tissue. Then I very carefully cleaned my bench and finally vacuumed the whole area out, better safe than sorry.