I have a old south Ben lathe and a old Cincinnati Lathe. Both old and both do a good job. How ever they do need 3 phase power. And all I have is single phase. That is the bad news. The good news is you can get a 3 phase power converter to make them work. I also wanted a better lathe what isn't wore out to cut threads. I got a Smithy lathe and it came with a lot of tooling and it was 220 single phase. With Mills and Lathes the machine is the cheap part the tooling to make it work adds up quick. I found a old south Ben lathe book that has helped more then anything. I have the memory span of a gold fish so i look at it a lot to make sure I am setting things right. If you can find someone around that can teach you would be your best bet. I don't have any digital on my lathes I just use the dials you can save some money there. I would get the quick change tool post they are great you can add that at any time.

Keith

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(Smithy lathe.jpg)

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cincinnati lathe.jpg (252KB - 91 downloads)

Smithy lathe.jpg (88KB - 66 downloads)

South Ben lathe.jpg (161KB - 86 downloads)