I'm going to get a lathe, and tend to get a little crazy about these things - research ad infinitum, then end up buying some all-the-bells-and-whistles monster...! I'm trying to avoid doing that here, so after a bit of the usual advice from People Wot Know...
My shop space is a little limited, and I figure a lathe can be many machines. I'm not a turner, but I'm sure I'll play with it at some point in the future. I've thought of getting a decent big beast from the start, but I think a mini/midi might do initially, and then I can get something bigger when I have an idea of what I want to do. I do want a quality tool though - cheap and wobbly just don't float my boat any more!
Initially, it'll spend most of its time being a disc and spindle sander to clean up those little bandsaw boxes Alan taught me to make. Likely to make some small pieces and widgets like handles, and then we'll see...
I'd prefer a swivel head for the added versatility, and variable speed control as I'm inherently lazy and unlikely to spend too much time fiddling with belts - particularly with the sanding application.
From reading through the forums, these lathes seem to have a reasonable rep:
Hafco: https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W385 (no swivel head :/ )
Nova Comet: https://www.carbatec.com.au/comet_lathe (no swivel head :/ )
Hafco with a swivel headstock: https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W382
Not sure about the Jets - I've had some personal recommendations liking them, and others that say they're now pretty poor quality.
Anything else I should be thinking about?
I've kept an eye on gumtree, but it's the usual case of people asking much more than I'm willing to pay for a 2nd hand machine of unknown origin. Unless there's a significant saving, I'd rather pay a few hundred more and get the full backup of a new buy. As an example of a recent ad: a Nova 3000 DVR for $2250 just seems like a lot of money for a machine that's likely to be 10+ years old, and a serious problem if that motor or electronics let's its smoke out. Is that an unreasonable attitude?