So about a year later, I have finally got this project back to work. The hexnuts had rusted so thoroughly that the plate holding the heat element had become fused shut. And I mean fused. Took quite a bit of cajoling to get out.

But we finally got it off, re-tapped the holes and polished up the heating element. No mean feat to re-tap those holes accurately, and I am eternally grateful to the two guys at the local machine shop (Custom Prototypes) who help solve these problems. This time I'm using stainless steel nuts and hopefully we avoid future problems.

I am still doing the electronics diagnostic on it though. The rocker switch, the Pstat and the element I still need to test (element gives some resistance but I need to do a proper test). I'll post some pictures and test results. Aside from this irritation, the rest of the machine is in good shape and should be fired up by the end of the month. I'll post a full series of the take-down and re-build for reference, and I'll see what I can gather in terms of schematics, etc. for posting, just to have a decent set of materials in one place.