Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I buying a
small-ish lathe totally out of the question for you? Yes, a
good one is expensive, but it's versatile, and will last for a very long
time with reaonable care.
Apparently this one can be built without a lot of machine tools and such:
http://www.vintageprojects.com/machine-shop/lathe-modelling.html
I'd want to go with a full sized shop, all the nice machining stuff
I have seen are rather large scale steam engines. :)