Cleaning up my old lathe

[Mayhem]

I've had little shop time recently due to other things requiring my attention. However, yesterday I did get some time and decided to start mounting the DRO on my lathe. The Z axis was going to be fairly straight forward but the X axis was going to be a little more tricky.

I cannot go with the standard installation of mounting the scale to the cross slide and the read head to the carriage, as the feed system runs on the rear of my lathe and the scale would crash into the gears (which wouldn't be good). Here is an older photo, showing the feed gear on the right-hand side:
   

After considering several options, I decided to mount the scale (on its side) to the carriage and fix the read head to the cross slide. I bent up a bracket and powder coated it bright yellow in the hope I would see it and not smack into it, or drop anything on it.

   
   

I need to fabricate a cover, which will sit flush with the top of the cross slide and extend out to cover the read head.

On to the Z axis. When my lathe was made, DROs were not yet invented, so I can excuse them for the rough casting on the bed. As such, my first job was to make some levelling plates, so I had a fighting chance of getting the scale mounted true.

   
   

I pretty much ran out of time here, so I quickly mocked up the read head bracket and called it a day.