Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Wanting to start turning and not knowing a whole lot about it, I bought this lathe. This is a classic example of "you get what you pay for". The bed is made from sheet metal and easily buckles when mounting work (i had to reinforce it with angle iron). The headstock and tailstock are solid, so they will not accept any mandrels / morse tapers. So if your looking for something to turn pens, keep looking, you can't do it with this lathe. The 4 spur center that comes with it is ok. The face plate is flimsy. The handles for the tool rest and tailstock hit each other when attempting to mount anything smaller than 6 inches (I modified my tool rest to overcome this). It does run smooth at all speeds. The tool rest is on a 3/4 inch post, so far I have not found and other tool rest that will fit it (thus I have had to make those too). The set pin for the tool rest had a cheap plastic handle that broke after a week. I replaced it with a bolt that I can turn with a wrench. The tailstock center is not removable so you wont be able to use any other centers with it (in order to overcome this I turned several jam chucks that fit over the fixed center). I have done extensive modifications to this lathe in the 8 months I have had it. With a PSI chuck I am able to mount and turn most projects I want to do. However, Now that I have saved up some money, I will be buying a new lathe. My recommendation is simple, Dont buy it. Intermediates and experts know better. For all the beginners out there, save your money buy a jet or delta that will take you well down the path of turning.