Re: lathes, what's best?
 

Hey Anthony,
We currently use a Sharp-1640c lathe and a Sharp-rd-1230 radial arm drill. They are imports but for our shop they seem to be fine for the jobs we are doing. I have used them since 96 and never have had a problem. I'm sure there are better ones but for the money these have served us well. We mostly use them for fixtures and some prototype work. We use DoAll for all of our cutting needs. They make great vert/horz saws and their saw blades are reasonable also. CNC wise we use a Fadal VMC 6030 again with great results and no problems. They make smaller versions that would be great in any small shop.
Ill try to include a link to some of the Sharp machines. Like I said they are imports but seem ok for the projects we use them for.

http://idahomachinery.com/New%20Mach...ery.htm#LATHES

Re: lathes, what's best?
 

Some additional common-sense advice about buying a used lathe is here: http://www.mermac.com/advice.html