AT-300 lathe-mill-drill, cross slide and saddle testing - 1

Continuing the "restoration" of the AT-300 lathe-mill-drill I recently bought. Well aware of how "awfully bad" this machine/type was rumored to be (and probably is..), this has been a quite popular machine especially for a beginner/in a small workshop. Hence the purpose of buying this was to see how much it could be improved in the form of scraping etc. plus the planned ELS "modernization", these aspects possibly of interest/worth to others. Starting with some "beautification" of parts (common descriptive term often seen in Chinese hotel bathrooms especially for "female appliances") to be able to handle them properly for measurement purposes and without risk of destroying the surface plate (or suffering a "small-scale" injury.. some very nasty sharp parts).. in the case of the saddle some simple machining, then a glimpse into the initial testing and at 07:05 onwards an overview and (preliminary, ie. prior to scraping) conclusion before starting the real work.. this will of course involve the usual rough- and finish scraping cycles and refitting/aligning the parts. The latter in due course ie. after finishing the bed, which will be the topic of (yet) another video (or more..).
PS! It is quite possible to be able to take such a project with you to a scraping class.. like one of my fellow "student friends" did in the Richard King class in Georgia back in 2013, bringing his Shoptask 1720 3-in-1 combo. and if I remember correctly being able to "cover" most of the parts in the course of the week. This type of a 3-in-1 were a little ahead in the development path as compared with the other contemporary combinations machines ie. having a somewhat more advanced design.. and and can be easily recognized as they were usually painted yellow, as opposed to the blue color for the AT-300 which was also adopted by Smithy on the versions they sold. Anyway, they are both budget machines of far-Eastern origin and (huge) compromises are made in design and production so don't expect to be able to compare these with a Schaublin or other high-end expensive machines (a Swiss machine is my usual choice when used for comparative reasons like this, but over the pond you might prefer to mention a Monarch :) ). However, being as they are this shouldn't discourage you in your attempt to use this to the best of their (and your) abilities. I actually think that the potential for improvement is also larger as well as from a learning perspective it may very well be an "ideal" project to bring to a scraping class (at the very least not much is "lost" if you make a mistake..)