Yeah, that is why I was asking what the reference was... if he was referencing say from the granite surface up to the ways, in other words he was out of parallel from the "feet" to the ways it doesn't really matter.
Actually... I'd think for that one you would want to check the dovetails by putting a rod on either side and checking parallel.
Like this ----> o\ /o
And measure the front and back of them to see how far they were out from each other.
The next measure might be... flip the base upside down and rest the ways on a set of matched paralels. It should be easy to see if they are sitting flat on both paralells. If it is, that first dovetail paralelism check is where the problem is.
Hmmm, I will knock up a quick CoC because I don't like my explaination... LOL
Q: How many tools does it take before a simple task becomes a project?
A: Just one. I'm the Tool that turns a simple task in to a project.