I need advice on lathe purchase

[jere]

Make sure to check that the bedways are good and flat, every part that turns, turns as it should, and make sure there is lots of tooling ,tool posts, chucks , tailstock, extra gears if it is not a quick change gear box. With any of the above missing it is going to be hard to find Parts for a machine that are no longer available. at that price being 1000- 500 dollars (at least around where i am) high i would expect a lot. i passed on a machine of similar size and area that was selling for $ 300. The seller was just waiting for a sucker to get rid of a hunk of negative value scrap metal for him.

There are some good deals out there to so don't be afraid to walk away. As soon as you buy the machine another better more complete cheaper one will show up.