I expect a band saw could save a lot of milling time. There might be internal stresses from the heat in the castings, so parts might move as you're cutting pieces out.
Definitely. Lost the big bandsaws in the fire too, but eventually those will get replaced.
My one of my horizontal mills, and my shaper were in another building, so they're still good to go (and I just love cutting things on the shaper - there's something just serene about watching it cycle gently back and forth, peeling off shavings. Mine's only a 14", so it just takes little bites, but a friend has a 24" hydraulic that makes chips that go "clank" when they hit the floor. Someday I'm gonna get me one of those...)
I think I like this idea. I'm going to keep at least the spare engines that were on pallets and see what I can turn them into.
The iron/steel parts that were not heat treated are probably OK if they have not warped beyond usability.
Any thoughts on bolsters? Generally I'm worried about strength in thin-section iron load-bearing parts that have gotten hot. There's enough meat in the axle housings and body tube that if they're not cracked (magnaflux to the rescue) I'd bet on their structural integrity even after a fire, but I'm not too sure about the bolster.