Thanks Irving, yeah I think I'm going back to that idea but just wanted to see what other peoples option were. I was also tempted to put encoders on the ball screws and have a permanent DRO / spindle speed on the machine.

The pendant is easier to implement but I still have in the back of my mind a comment someone said about the how nice it can be to to just grab the handles and machine or drill a few holes.

Looks like I will have to pester Robin on how often he uses the manual side of it :0)