Must admit I'm curious as to why those bar bed lathes even exist.
The Unimat SL market from the 1950s is still thriving and a lot of money flies around because even a clueless amateur can send an entire lathe/milling machine by post
The machine can either be used for making little teeny bits or as a stepping stone to greater things
It shows you "The Ropes" where lathing/milling is concerned, especially the dirty hands, limitations of your tooling and swarf in the flesh part
If you can't handle lathing you pack it up and put it back onto a well known auction site
They are perfect entry level units for anyone who has no clue about machining but wants to have a look at the hobby for themselves
Edit: The bars on the SL are 12mm which is a bit weedy. Now if they had made a 16mm bar version the machine would be much improved
Edited By Ady1 on 25/06/2015 10:09:27