Wondering if it's less about the stranger's story and more about being stuck somewhere with no phone signal and nothing else to do. Walt didn't give you advice, he just gave you 40 minutes of dead air to sit with the thing you already knew you had to do.

Did you zero the DRO off a known pin or just trust the scale readings out of the box? On my old Clausing I ran a 1-2-3 block against the spindle and set the readout to that so I knew the numbers matched reality. A vise swap only fixes holding, but a DRO fixes every hole location, every step cut, every bolt circle you drill. One thing that bit me was forgetting the scales move with the table so backlash on the screws still matters if you climb mill.

Did the box come with a mat or did you put it on carpet? Cats can be picky about how the thing feels under their paws when they step in, and that rake noise spooks a lot of them too. I'm curious if you ever tried running it without the auto rake on, just to see if she'd at least step inside.