On Jul 18, 12:00*am, Ignoramus20788 ignoramus20...@NOSPAM.
20788.invalid wrote:

I repeated the procedure several times, every time the reading would
return to zero as I returned the carriage back away from the
tailstock, and the max reading was consistently 0.05 or 0.06mm, or
0.002 inch.

So, my obvious question is how to read this number, do you think that
the wear is bad or not bad?

My first lathe had ~0.025" of bed wear and still could turn straight,
which is the real test. Use it, make some parts and measure them, then
decide if the lathe is good enough for the sort of work you do. I
adapted to that worn lathe by doing critical work at the tailstock end
where the bed and leadscrew were in good condition.