Thread: thinking of buying a centre lathe

Hi im new to this forum i have been looking around in it for a week or two though I have a couple of questions that i would like to hear your opinions on i am think of buying a AL340D from Hare and Forbes here in Perth it supplied with a 2hp 240v motor. The thread range it does is quite good covers metric really well and only lacks the 1/2 threads in the imperail range my questions are
1 With a 2hp motor what sort of cuts could i expect with carbide tooling as compared with sharp hss tools and what sort of cuts wood be pushing the machine or is the motor rated high enough
2 what sort of accuracy could one realistically expect out of these lathe once they have done a couple of years work ie lead screw nut wear in the feed screws i do not intend to work it hard but if one pushed could it take it

Many thanks and i look froward to your comments and opinions