From A Detroit boy
I have run over a couple of dozen different ones,my first was in aboot 73,3inch bar readouts that went to 1/2 thou,72 inchs right to left.the owner was tight with Kelsey Hays(sp) we built the wheel dies for I swear every space saving spare tire,I machined the G. pins bores,slide pockets ,scap shoots,installed all locating dowels.
We were down the street from a Cat dealer,we also repaired dozer and back hoe parts,LARGE MONEY,clean the mud off,go right back to G.pins
As was said most are getting tired now,but they are a different breed from say a G&L.
The spindles are amazing for stiffness,largest is 5 or 6 inchs.
In Detwa(Detroit area)there are plenty of these machines still hitting it 10 hours a day,shops with six of them is not un common.IF rebilt proper like,installed proper like,(six feet of ceement)very accurate,but again,as said,you can buy em for 10 large,still got i/4 million to make it right,just guessing on the 1/4 mil.
I have earned good money filling the chip dumpster with em,all this said,retro fits generally suck,old iron is old iron,give me a new G&L for me birthday(last Monday)and I will be happy for ever.
DeVliegs need to be run different to move heavy metal,lighter more rapid cuts,they will cut with the 2 speed rapid button,I will stop rambling now,thanks for bringing them up it sure was fun hittin the recall button.
peace gw