TU-58

I am darn glad I asked for a lathe instead of a car (and driving lessons) when my late father offered to buy me the latter. I still can't drive, but I don't miss that at all... Unfortuantely I went to the sort of school that inflicted Latin and (ancient) Greek on its students. Metalwork was certainly a no-no, even physics was frowned upon... But amazingly I managed to get 'electronics' classed as a sport, so while others chased spheres and prolate spheroids, I hand-wired a Z80-based computer, made a simple CRT from scratch and taught myself how to use a lathe.... Hmmm.. the tools they sell have various perjorative names that I will not repeat publically.... The general balanced view is that they can be used for good work, but you need to sort them out first, which may mean access to another lathe and/or metalwork skills (sounds like you have the latter). Personally I would consider a second-hand Myford 7 (if you have the space) or Unimat (one of the old metal ones, of course) if you don't. -tony