Do not know your lathe but cross slides can be made of quite hard material which makes drilling and tapping not that easy. Niko.

I once milled down a spare Myford cross slide to fit a large diameter tube between the centers, the cutter needed re-sharpening after work done.

Of course would also encourage Ozebob to give it a try but you do not want a broken tap left in your cross slide because you was a bit over enthousiast.

Niko.

You can buy vertical slides suitable for Hafco lathes at Hare &Forbes. I think you mount them to the top slide position.

If it's just for cutting keyways in shafts then provided they are not too large put them in the toolpost and pack to height as you would with a boring bar, even easier if you have a QCTP.

"I think you may have been unlucky with your casting". It must have been export quality than.

Do not make much use of it but handy when needed. Niko.

Sorry to disagree but it is not butchering, just making fit for purpose. btw a cross slide is interchangeable and the one "butchered" was a left over spare short length after I invested in a long one. Niko.

With respect to the above, let me qualify the term 'butchery' and the context in which it was meant in my comment. IMO there is nothing wrong with carefully modifying or enhancing a machine tool to accommodate attachments or facilitate greater convenience of use. Indeed, my own cherished Myford has been suitably, and I hope properly, adapted to permit the use of head-stock dividing attachments etc. and I am contemplating modifying the apron to fit a rapid threading device.

I was thinking more along the lines of drilling and tapping holes in slides and face-plates to facilitate the machining of possibly just one job. I would have thought that this, besides anything else, would have detracted from the value of the machine alone when the time came to sell it on. Notwithstanding the unsightly appearance of apparently randomly drilled and tapped holes.

Each to their own, the machines are the individual's property and they are perfectly entitled to do whatever they want with them as I do with mine. I was just making the point, possibly very badly, that it would never do for me personally and not a way of working that I would ever adopt. Again, IMO, there is usually a way around everything with a little thought without resorting to 'butchery'.

If you just want to do key ways why not make a cross drilling jig to fit the crosslide and do your key ways on that, which is the method I use. The jig is a robust piece of steel angle machined dead square with a piece of 3/4 x5/8 fixed to it horizontally at centre height. Bolt square to crosslide and machine V groove. Perfectly on centre and zero set up time. Can be tarted up a bit with front fence to aid squareness and if no t slots in crosslide make one of your fixingholes an arc slot so keys on tapers can be done or angular holes, only limited by your imagination. Best of luck.