Last night my better half came out to the garage and helped me by sandblasting all the Z axis/headstock parts. She seems to enjoy using the blast cabinets to clean up parts, so I was not going to turn down the help. The cast iron block that the linear bearings bolt to and he pivot plate both cleaned up easily and I did not find any filler (bondo). This was actually better then I expected to find. I knew the headstock casting was wearing some filler, from when I did some machining on it. But I was very surprised at the amount of filler that had been used on the casting. There was a minimum of 1/16" of filler on any surface that was not machined, I would say it was more like an average of 3/32" in thickness with spots being thicker then 1/8". I am very puzzled as to why there was so much filler used and on every surface. I found 2 spots with casting flaws both of which could have used a spot treatment and been fine. Tonight I am hoping to have enough time to spray the color coat on the parts so they can have a couple days to cure before the weekend.
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