Hi Roger,
That’s a lot of money for a very small lathe plus it is round bed, this method of making lathe beds went out with the ark. You want something with v bed (Myford’s are flat bed) with a minimum of 4.5″ swing otherwise you will quickly out grow the machine. V bed (like on Boxfords) gives better accuracy.
Another thing to consider is the way the chuck fits on. Many are screw on some have the continental system of being bolted to a faceplate which stays on the machine (slow and a faff). The best system is camlock which is three or more pins permanently fitted to the chuck/faceplate etc with the cams contained in the headstock. It is rare to get this on smaller machines but it does make it better as these are standard where the screwed on type vary massively between makers.
I would advise you NOT to buy a modern machine, most are just not a patch on an old Brit built lump of iron. The problem is there is just not enough metal in newer machines plus, as already mentioned, the quality control is crap if it is done at all that is.
Cheers
James
