Hi Raymond,
I haven't reground the bed, it is an expensive process and I wanted to assess the accuracy first (TBC). I do have some concerns – the previous owner had filled all the oilers full of grease (not oil) and the saddle has definitely got some wear, and the beds have a couple of dings where heavy things seem to have been dropped.
However, I completed the saddle and tailstock and adjusted the gibs yesterday. I was expecting them to be loose around the headstock end and tight at the tailstock, but even when fitted very close at the headstock the saddle moved smoothly right to the tailstock which suggests that the wear is not too bad.
I have to run the lathe yet and see how tight it is when it is finished.
To clean the beds I just used some strong solvent to get all the grime off and then some Roloc, blue fine surface conditioning discs to remove any stains and light rust after some advice on one of these forums.
I then cleaned and wiped and then applied the Slideway 68 (Smith and Allan 5L is great value).
Matt