I know how to run a lathe and vertical mill, but would love to learn more about any of the topics you mentioned. It sounds more involved than what you'd find in a normal maintenance shop. Any suggestions to learn more about this? I didn't know that people even rebuilt lathes and mills.
All my test kit; block gauges, micrometers, 300kg surface plate, engineers levels, sine bars etc are calibrated at 20'c (the industry standard) .. one of the best ways to see the effect temperature has on accuracy is to warm one side of an engineers level in your hand then place it on a surface and watch the bubble move as the temperature equalizes.