So after lots of long telephone conversations with lots of very helpful people on here,we have decided to go down the route of removing all the boxford electronics and replacing with nice new shiny stuff, the only thing we will be keeping is the spindle speed controller this were going to add in to mach 3 and be able to control with a pot,(would love to be able to monitor spindle speed) and have seen another thread on here of a vmc260 conversion I think the guy there did the same, any info on that would be great did you get it to work ?
here some pictures before the start
Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140423_200800.jpg  Views: 1668  Size: 247.3 KB  ID: 12298Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140423_200809.jpg  Views: 891  Size: 112.7 KB  ID: 12299Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140423_205854.jpg  Views: 852  Size: 183.3 KB  ID: 12300Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140424_164509289.jpg  Views: 971  Size: 222.0 KB  ID: 12301Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140423_220236.jpg  Views: 1726  Size: 382.0 KB  ID: 12302Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_20140424_164552798_HDR.jpg  Views: 803  Size: 129.7 KB  ID: 12303so pretty much a standard boxford vmc300 we have the original pc and software but wanted full 3d machine so all that must go