Had a bit of time to spare so I removed the leadscrew, plugged up what I could with rag, then using a 1/4 inch diameter mounted stone in a die grinder I ground the part of the saddle that was hitting on the leadscrew support bracket.
I also dressed a little bit off the bracket. Where the saddle used to hit the bracket it now clears and I have gained 13mm (about 1/2 inch). I may never need this extra little bit of travel but then again you never know.
As far as the rack is concerned I could still get an extra 5 or 6 mm travel but I would have to extend the keyway in the leadscrew as that is now the limiting factor. A job for another day, maybe.
Since this pic was taken I have ground a bevel along the front edge of the tailstock just to get a bit extra inwards movement of the cross slide before the compound handle hits the tailstock.
Just checking out the back slide strip (slide block) of the saddle, I'd like to have a nip up screw back there somewhere for when I'm doing milling in the lathe, when milling the more nip up screws the better, you need as much rigidity as you can get. Not much room so will have to do some thinking as to how I am going to get a screw or clamp in there to do the job.
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