Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought mine from Harbor Freight as a ready to run machine. At least that was the plan, as I knew little about lathes at the time. Roll forward a couple of years and I feel I have one or two comments that may be of value. First off, any new lathe is essentially a kit of parts. Once you have scraped off the packing grease and given it a nice wipe down you have this unknown monster staring at you. Next you will need to set it up. Ignore the manual, the writers have no clue. Go to any search engine and look for advice on setting up a lathe - there is a lot out there and it's all valuable to one extent or another. While this is going on you will need to add cutting tools, hex keys (adjustments) and some goodies like starter kits and replacement screw sets from Little Machine Shop (add this site to your browser, you will go there frequently). Micromark sometimes beats them on price and shipping, so shop around. Follow the advice in the various posts on setup slowly and deliberately, checking for results at each step - it sounds ponderous but it is fun and very enlightening. By now you will be filthy and oily but better acquainted with your tool, which itself is now set up to actually do something. Now you need to read up on how to machine something (assuming you are a novice - like me) so sit down and absorb all the wisdom and experience that is out there. Tea/coffee/beer time! Then play around a little to see how it performs/behaves/could be better, based on your now informed perspective and experience of fettling it. By now you have got to know your lathe, it's vibrations and noises. That is what I meant by a kit of parts - ready to be set up to perform, but 'out of the box'? No way - but as I found out, no lathe should be be regarded as 'ready to run'. This product is not a bad lathe, just cheap, like so many others clones from foreign shores. It is a good economical starting point, but you will (come back and read this again in a year) buy cutting tools, tool posts, chucks, metal gears, threading screws (never knew I could not manage without one) and goodness knows what that will double your purchase price easily. By then you will have exactly the tool you want/need. And this applies to every lathe regardless of price, so don't worry about this being cheap. It's a good start and all the tools you buy will work on the upgrade you may yet buy as lathes of this ilk are very much standard in their tapers and mountings (tapers...? You will find out and know why...). But you will enjoy every minute of getting to know this creature and using it... Good luck!