A similar situation for me except it was 25 years. Once we agreed to go our separate ways, I started to keep detailed financial records. I got out of the bargain in fairly good shape aside from having to pay off a number of loans she had taken out without my knowledge.
After that, I made it a point to follow George Washington's advice in his farewell adress to the country; "avoid entangling alliances".
I rediscovered this thread entirely by accident. I thought I might as well wander back and post some updates.
I continued to struggle with the compound, and was never happy with it. While doing a job that involved parting a 5" steel tube, the parting tool would deflect, dig, chip weld, then crash the lathe, again and again. It was ugly. I broke several parting tools, and my tool post hold down, and ended up using that as an excuse to get a real Aloris. The much more beefy 9/16" mounting stud of the Aloris probably made a lot more difference than changing tool posts did. I improved rigidity enough to get the job done, but then it was time to tear into the machine again and try to do a better job of solving this problem.
I took the gib out, put some layout dye on it, and stoned it on a surface plate. (Then I stumbled across a video of a guy having a surface plate resurfaced after ruining it by using abrasives on it in this exact fashion, so I designated that as my "junk plate" and bought a bigger plate that lives on a dedicated stand, and has a fancy wood covering with a velvet lining.
Oh là là! ) The gib was all kinds of wonky. I decided to try just buying a new one from Grizzly, which was only like $5.00. I bought two.
I installed the better of the two gibs, and the compound was better than it ever had been. I fiddled with the gib adjustment, chasing a balance between rigidity and still being able to turn the dang feed screw. I arrived at a reasonably satisfactory compromise, but I still wasn't happy with the rigidity. I decided to take the compound off again, and I tapped and drilled three holes for whatever size hex cap screws I had a box of.
Now it pretty much lives with the gibs locked down, and the compound is no longer a problem. This was a good compromise, without going to the trouble to build a totally rigid tool post mount, as I have seen some do. The rigidity problem has moved to the cross-slide, which visibly deflects under certain high load conditions. Well, I like how that is adjusted otherwise, and at least I only have one source of deflection instead of two. I'm living with it as it is, and think I have pretty much done all the improving I can do. It's a benchtop machine. It has limitations.
As to the marriage, I got everything cleared up with only minimal damage to my credit, and my self-esteem.
Anyway, long story short, I decided to try to deal with my loneliness and depression by throwing myself into a clock build. That's what I'm going on about these days. I've got a gear blank mounted on my mill, and next time I head out to the shop, I'm going to try to cut some teeth on it, and we'll see if I pull it off.
