I wish mine was as big.

Well they say size isnt everything

Hood

They are just being nice. Size dose matter. In fact some times size is every thing, but your woman probably want tell you that. Some day I hope to have a CNC lathe that big, but for now it's the little guys for me. If something that size fell into my lap, I wouldn't know ware to put it. Sure is fun to watch some one breath new life into these nice old machines. I love to see the pride that people put into the retrofits that they do. The VMC that JHChoppers has been working on is a perfect example.   

Well mine has occasionally been too big but more often its too small The worst is the spindle bore, its 72.5mm which is a PITA, if only it was capable of passing 3"  it would be great, lots of boats have 75mm or 3" shafts.

Hood

Thanks for comments. Ive just swapped the DSPMC on the router so now Ive got one to put in here.

These big old lathes are heading towards scrap yards so they need to be saved.

BTW, my manual lathe is a Myford Super 7, its got a 5/8" spindle bore, so dont worry about your bore being too small hood. Smallest thing I ever made on it was a little valve spindle as a prototype for an aerosol spray can part, 5mm long, 2mm diameter with splines on the outside of it! I cut the splines just by using the handwheel to force a tool through like a slotter. And I worked on it with a magnifying glass!

Well I have never done anything that small on the Computurn, did do a small spindle for the hyraulic lever on the tailstock of the lathe, it was about 3mm dia 50mm long with a 5mm dia ball near the end, I was surprised how easy it was. In fact I made 3 just to make sure the first one wasnt just luck
Worst job I have done on it was turning 6.5mm dia x 100mm long Mu metal down to 3mm dia. That stuff is a nightmare to turn, one wrong move and it wraps itself in knots and it was about £1000 per meter if I recall correctly.
 I prefer the big stuff though, hearing the chips rattle off the tin work is nice

Hopefully you will get some progress now you have the DSPMC, certainly looking forward to the pics and of course the vid when its up and running
Hood

Message for Hood and PIV. Don't know if Hood's machine has a hydraulic Chuck and actuator but we used to put front actuated air chucks from SMW on the Mori TL5's to gain an extra .5" dia, by removing the draw tube.
Ray.

I am still struggling with my Fanuc motors bouncing all over the floor, so I really want this machine to work.
Ray.

Ray
 mine came with a hyd chuck but was closed centre so I took it off and replaced with a manual chuck. Would love a self contained chuck but never seen one second hand, well at a price that suits my deep pockets and short arms
 I have been toying with the idea of putting a hyd chuck back on in the last few weeks but I dont have an open cylinder but my friend may have one shortly. Have a Pratt Gamet chuck but no hard jaws, just the masters and I can remove the centre part of the original chuck and get 2" through which will probably be ok for the most part. Will just have to see what comes along. Could make or get soft jaws for the Gamet but the type of work I do hard jaws are more suited.

Whats the probs with the Fanuc motors, is this the DSPMC build you are doing?

Hood

I just scrapped a mori SL3 and didn't take the through cylinder off..I did take the 10" hydraulic chuck off it. I am now trying again to run the Fanuc motors and drives but it's a hard slog. I tried last last year until my 3-1 Fanuc drive crapped out ( $2,000) repair bill, then I found out from Machmotion the first generation DSPMC was the problem.
I haven't found anybody as of yet that has used Fanuc, even machmotion haven't tried Fanuc.
I hope Piv's machine works because I have lots of customers with old Mori's. I still have have info for the old Mori's and sent Piv the electrical drawings for a 1977 TL5. I started servicing them in 1980 here in Canada after emigrating from the UK.
Ray.