When I first got my mill, I basically pulled the gibbs (yes, they were scraped and flaked. Flat too.), deburred, and ran a stone over them and oiled the crap out of everything after flushing the ways out with a half dozen aerosol cans of WD-40. Adjusted the gibbs and ran it for a few days like that doing some test cuts and making a couple of small parts I needed to finish a project. The mill did OK, but I knew in my heart that I really needed to get into this thing and see what's what. It IS a Chinese machine after all, so of course fit and finish are suspect. I accept this as a matter of course, as do some other folks, but some expect a perfect machine right out of the box at this price point. YMMV...
Like I said on the phone yesterday, for all intents and purposes I personally looked at the purchase of the 12Z as getting a set of base, saddle, column, and head castings pre-machined for a couple thousand dollars (try asking a US company to do that for the same money). Everything else is suspect and will get fixed, replaced, and/or modified until the machine meets MY standards. But I am a bit odd compared to most folks, or so my wife keeps telling me.
That and my oiler kit showed up from Paul.
So, I tore it apart. Gentle taps with a dead-blow to loosen the bearing blocks (yes, they are bondo'd and painted over). Pulled the table, saddle, screws, and bearing blocks. Sharpened a thick-bladed putty knife and attacked the paint and bondo anywhere near a mounting or sliding surface on the table, saddle, base, and bearing blocks (I may re-paint someday. Maybe). Cleaned and deburred everything. Filed all of the sharp edges off of the table and stoned the top and all the sliding surfaces. Same process for the base, saddle, and bearing blocks.
NOTE: The oiler holes on the table, saddle, and bearing blocks have no reliefs cut in them on the inside to promote oil flow. They are just a straight through hole. Some I could get oil into, some I couldn't unless I loosened up the machine. If I wasn't planning on doing the one-shot oiling system, I would have taken my Foredom and a 1/8" carbide bur and hand cut some channels off the inside of those oiler holes to get the oil better distributed to where it needs to go. Same on the bearing blocks. This iron is not that hard, and it NEEDS oil to prevent premature wear. Just a FYI.
For the oiling system I hand drilled the oiling holes in the saddle, but then did the oiling grooves in the sliding surfaces with my PM25. They could be done by hand, but they wouldn't have been as straight.
Reassembled and adjusted everything and it has worked well for over a year. Now it's back apart while I do the ball screw upgrade and I took the opportunity to inspect all the sliding surfaces. Everything is looking very good so far. But as you have seen, I oil the crap out of this thing (oil puddled in the troughs on the base and dripping on the floor). When I pull the oiler handle I don't stop until I see oil running everywhere. Then I know it's good to go for the day.