@regorlas and I are slowly but surely getting the metal lathe in working shape. Because of his diligent cleaning, the tail stock is now on and slides beautiful on a film of oil, and today we wired up the motor and it runs in forward and reverse. The key I made fits the chuck now that I did some fine tuning.

So, the only thing left before trying to make chips is putting a drive belt on it. We're almost there!