Lathe Repair 1 of ?

Here is my lathe. I know, for some of you pros this is nothing to look at, but it is (rather, will be) good for my needs. Note that the bed is a 4 foot long steel tube. More on that shortly.


On the bottom of the tube there is a strip of metal called a "key" which is damaged. To fix or replace it I need to remove the tube. This end of the lathe is called the "foot" and that came off easily enough.


On the opposite end is the headstock, motor, pulleys, etc. I thought I could disengage the tube from inside here. Nope. Turned out it was easier than I thought with a recesessed "set screw" on the back side of where the tube enters the headstock. I should have looked a little longer.


So, with the tube off and oriented so you can see the bottom, here you can see the key and how it is bent. I slipped a paper towel in between for clarity. Broken rivets allowed me to slip the towel in.


Last picture for now. You can clearly see a broken rivet here. There are 12 rivets and I think that 8 of them were broken. The "key" is more damaged than it appears n the pictures...I definitely need a new strip of aluminum (I know, I'm going to clean up all the rust too...already started).