Hey djshop,
I hear ya on the squeeling pig analogy. I tried putting way oil on my uhmw bushings and letting some coolant flow through the tube too with the same resault. I made some bushings from delrin wich is harder than the uhmw hoping that they wouldn't gall up inside the tube but, I had one go into a harmonic vibration at 6000 rpm and explode so now I just stick with the 2' sticks like you do.
I used a Fagor controle on a large engine lathe at another shop. It was OK except it didn't use all the same Fanuc standard G & M codes and that was confusing. Doubley so because it wouldn't talk to Master Cam either and I had to programe it at the controle.