You are on the right track.
I'm kinda old fashioned and like my dial indicator. I like to see things coming. Can't tell you how many times I over shoot a number on my mill. Now for the real scary part, I'll be getting a CNC lathe in near future. Ear plugs, face shield and flak jacket will be the uniform of the day. Oh forgot need one of those life alert things you wear around your neck to call 911 in case I can't get up.
Dave
I have an old CNC mill that I had working in my shop in CA. I haven't gotten it working since I moved from CA to PA. You aren't exaggerating much. I discovered a lot of things in the process of learning to program it, debug the programs, and then set the machine up so it would do what I intended to do instead of what I told it to do.
The mill has a variable speed pulley drive on it in addition to which I have a variable frequency 3PH drive on it.
I was using the electronics to set the speed with out changing the variable pulley drive on the lathe so the motor could be running at near it's designed rpm. One day I wanted to slow the cutter down so I just dialed the speed down with the VF drive. Bad idea. Mistake.
The cutter was running the right rpm ... unloaded ... but the motor didn't have the hp to make the cut at that rpm so it bogged, the feed kept going, and it broke a 1/2" hogging mill right off. The piece that went flying missed me but the lesson was certainly clear.
I made it to the emergency stop switch just in time several times when I'd inadvertantly put a clamp or some other piece of apparatus in the tools path. The tools can't see, wake up really hungry, and eat anything - wood, steel, aluminum, brass, meat ...
I've never worked with a CNC lathe but it seems to me that a CNC lathe might have the potential for more violence since it has larger pieces and parts in motion which equals more stored energy ...
That said, if I could afford one, I'd not let any of the above stop me.
Fitch