A friend of mine has a Raglan Little John that has hardened ground
rectangular steel bars for the ways which can be removed and might be
reground. See
http://www.lathes.co.uk/raglan/page12.html
http://www.lathes.co.uk/raglan/index.html

Christopher Tidy wrote:

Hi all,

Today I spent an idle moment pondering the design of machine tools. It
occurred to me that the thing that often kills the accuracy of old
lathes is wear to the ways at the headstock end. So I thought, why not
build a lathe with replaceable ways? Either precision ground bars
which screw onto the casting, or a simple set of ways which bolt onto
the headstock at one end, and perhaps a pair of mounting feet
underneath? And the best solution would be if all the manufacturers
used the same dimensions of replaceable ways for each size of lathe...

Anyone ever seen a lathe with intentionally replaceable ways?

Best wishes,

Chris