Lathe bed (South Bend 9) raised scratch and ding - repair options ?

Whatever you do, ignore the low spots. Do not attempt to fill them, and do not attempt to take down the scratch, ding, hole, gouge, or whatever until it disappears "to make it pretty." High spots need to be dressed until they just come level with the major surfaces, and low spots should be totally ignored because they do not cause accuracy problems. Trying to fill low spots with softer materials only makes places where grit can become embedded and cause more problems. Machine tools do not "need" to be pretty. Ugly machines in good repair, functional and reasonably clean, will make equally good parts as pretty machines will, so let the nice parts you make show off your talents. Machines and tools are a means to reach an end.
 
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