It looks like it should work.

I always prefer to do the bore first as any small holes can make the drill wander, not such an issue if you are finishing with a boring bar but a reamer will follow a wayward drilled hole.

That's great Chris! I have some nickel plates I bought a year ago to try that, but hadn't yet. It's really good to read about your experience and results with it. 

Thanks kindly MJM460!!  You know I have thought about that, but every time I think about it I see a big bulk of a stepper motor hanging off of the action end of the cross-slide, and it cuts into the available travel, reduces stiffness, is hard to allow it to freewheel, and just generally gets in the way of hand cranking. And I don't want to loose that capability. I see my lathe as a manual lathe.

I've had a similar but lesser problem considering if I can add a DRO scale to the cross slide. I do have one for the carriage in place already. But adding anything to the cross slide tends to interfere with range of travel by interference at the tailstock, or by extending too far out of the back of the lathe and hitting the back wall of the bench. I may still figure something out there...

If I were to purposefully design a CNC lathe, it would be quite a different design in many respects. If I had the shop room for an additional lathe, that would be an interesting project with some definite appeal for me. But as things stand now I'm working in a 6' x 8' space, so this one lathe was designed to be a very solid compact benchtop 9" x 12" lathe to fit the space. The leadscrew stepper motor is tucked underneath the headstock, so doesn't interfere at all, or reduced benchtop space.

It drives the leadscrew vial a toothed belt, and I can see an immediate need to make that easily detachable for manual cranking. Presently it isn't, and cranking now has the resistance of turning the stepper motor.

I'm thinking of getting a longer belt, and adding a retractable idler pulley to the back of the ways so I can release the stepper belt.

Likewise I'll also want a way to release the encoder, since it runs at motor speed, which is 5 times spindle speed, and there's no need to add wear to its bearings when the lathe is used manually.

But these are both refinements.

The printed side panels for the display bases were given a coat of black spray paint yesterday, and this morning they were glued to the wood blocks:

After getting the studs made to assemble the Erie cylinders to the crosshead guides, I was about to assemble them but paused to consider painting. The Erie and Marion engines have lettering on the steam chest covers that would show up much better in grey rather than the brass. I've been going back and forth about painting the parts, and when in the process. The other way I've done parts in the past was to nickel plate them using a plating solution tank and nickel anode, but that involves taping off areas not to be plated (inside cylinders, guides, etc) which is a pain to do. Then I remembered another plating technique that uses the same materials - 'brush' or 'pad' plating, which does not immerse the parts, but rather wraps a cloth/gauze pad around the anode, and you dip the cloth covered end in the solution, and 'paint' or rub it on the part. Its a technique often used in the jewelry making world, since it lets them apply plating (of a variety of metals) selectively, like just plating the tops of raised designs.
Don't know why I never tried it in the past, probably due to the tank method working well for the parts and not investigating other options more fully. I already have a container of nickel acetate solution and the anodes and power supply from the other method, so it was easy to try this other way after watching some videos online about it. There are places that will sell you a 'kit' with the anode, power supply, and bottle of solution for a lot of money, where the solution can be made at home very easily from cheap materials. So, here is my test piece - one of the cut off ends from a cylinder. It still has the discoloration from silver soldering, no fresh cuts or polishing, so I figured it was a good test case.

As you can see, I wiped it on to the right hand side of the top surface, and two stripes down the side leaving the area in the center as the raw discolored brass. I was surprised how well it covered over the different colors. For comparison, the piston on the left is made of 303 stainless - a decent color match. Also, since it is plating just where the cloth pad is touching the metal, it doesn't have the issues around thickness and rough surface buildup that can happen with the tank method, so the results are a lot smoother than I often get. Overall I think it did the parts a lot faster than the plating tank. I did the work over the tank, so I could keep dipping the cloth covered anode in the solution, and let the excess drip off the part back into the tank.

That went so well I decided to start plating the other parts for the Erie. So far I have the crosshead guide assembly and the base plate plated. The cylinder parts on the right will be done next, and I can assemble things. I'll have to go back and do the Thew parts, as well as the other two cylinders. Since I am just plating the outside faces that show, I shouldn't have to completely disassemble the cylinder blocks.

This should work out well - the plating is a lot tougher than paint, does not chip or rub off with handling, and is a much thinner fiolm than paint so it does not obscure details. Hard to see in the picture, but the guide tubes were only plated on the outside, the inside was left the raw brass so the crossheads will still slide well.

That's really nice!  A beautiful case for it. 

I have never made a case for mine.  Maybe I should someday...

Looking forward to seeing you get started on the engine now!

Kim