It works beyond your wildest dreams. Started doing this 15 or so years ago when I worked for Nesika. The Harrison cnc lathe we'd bought had not yet arrived and the "clunk o matic" that had been traditionally used needed to become fish habitat.
Spooled up a spider, attached a 4 jaw chuck, and started laying the hate. I don't know of any, but if a guy could find an indicatable C16 type collet chuck to fit a Hardinge that would be an even better option. (A tall order as a C16 collet by itself is almost as big as the entire spindle assembly. The Hardinge chucks that I'm familiar with don't use a back plate. They attach to the tapered nose of the spindle. Slide it on, give it a turn, and not much else. Stupid simple and easy.
This is the only way to thread on a manual machine. So easy...
As for your question about dialing in the bore. There is another way, but its generally not thought of as the chosen path.
Years ago I knew a guy who fit barrels by first throwing them between centers and running a "whisker pass" over the cylinder portion. The intent is to get the OD running common with the hole. From there he'd slap it in a 6 jaw and go to work. No spiders, no dials, no bullshit. In practice its really no different than threading on a steady rest. Just more rigid and void of all the contraptions strapped to the machines bedways.
It raised eyebrows, especially when you'd go to the range and watch the gun stack em with 1/3moa groups at 200, 300, etc... The moral here is there are lots of ways to skin cats in this game. His was by far the most efficient way (that I've ever seen anyway) to get a stick hung and running on manual equipment.
