Thanks everyone for the replies.
One last question for just now having got the lathe it only has a fixed 2 support steady rest, does anyone know where I can buy accessories like a live centre steady rest from and other spares? I have put a post on the 9×20 yahoo group with no response (to be honest there is little going on on that forum apart from some debate about moving the platform away from yahoo.)
Thanks again for all the help, some nice carbide tooling is arriving from JB cutting tools, Banggood and some HSS from arc eurotrade.It will be interesting to compare quality & delivery times.