here's my latest mod. made a solid steel block that bolts onto the cross slide in place of the compound rest. i made it the exact same (within .0005 according to my di) hight as the compound so i dont have to change tool hight when switching. i plan on doing some work to the compound to make it more rigid. when taking heavy cuts and placing a finger across the joint between to upper and lower halves of the compound, i could fell the pieces separating a few thousandths, even with the gib screws tight. with the new steel block the mini lathe feels much more heavy duty.