Lathe buying advice - where to start?

[smurfettes]

Hello,
Please be gentle with me! My husband annouced he has always wanted to own a lathe - well what else do you buy a man who has everything?!
Ive searched on ebay and am bewildered by huge choice, I am really hoping somebody on here will be able to shed some light on this huge topic.
Some more info, I dont have thousands of pounds to spend on one of the monster sized ones. I think, he will mostly use it for metal work as opposed to wood work - does the machine have to be one or the other?
It will be used rarely, for cars, motorbike restoration so no major heavy duty requirements.
Im sure Ive missed alot out, but really appreciative of all advice and buying contacts you may be able to pass my way
Many Thanks

[aametalmaster]

I was in that boat once i had to have a lathe, now i have 5 of them. You didn't give a location where you live and lathes are cheaper on the east side of the Mississippi than out west plus there are more of them. But you said "pounds and motorbike" so you may not be in the US. I would look for a South Bend 9" or 10" The 10" can be a light "K" or heavy 10R or 10L but the latter being the most desireable. All of my lathes were under $600.00 and i had to buy tooling extra. Now you can buy a new one from Grizzly, Jet or a lot of other selling places and get lots of tooling with it thats up to you. Plus a new one will run right out of the crate without much fiddling with it...Bob