After a little thought, I established that there was a collar on the end of the screw – something made to allow the dual dials to work. This covered over the original thread of the screw that is used on single dials. With the pin drifted out and the grub screw loosened, then the collar just came away with a gentle tap.

The screw was then pulled out of the carriage towards the opposite end. I held my hand under the gear in the carriage for fear it would fall away but the grease and dirt held it all in place. What I didn’t spot was how the bronze key (a 2nd key next to the one pinned to the helical gear) was held in place – probably retained in the gear / bearing cluster. I’m sure it will all become clear on the re-assembly!

Next, we move onto the Z-axis. From what I can see, I just need to remove the carriage from the z-axis nut, remove the jib strip and it should lift off. And indeed, that is what was required. The nut needed to be moved ‘back’. To do this, I removed the central cap head screw and then put it back a few turns and gently tapped it. This moved it away from the nut and the cap head screw stopped it falling to the drip tray. All I needed to do was to lift the carriage up off the machine.

Next item to remove was the top dials for the Y axis – easy now I know!

Well, the roll pin on this one is buggered! So that can wait.

My next task was to remove the auto traverse gearbox….

This will need a little thought! As removing the bolts does not allow it to come away from the main casting! – the pulley is in the way, I think.