[sanddrag]

On 968, they got a mill first, and I'll tell you we really could have used a lathe too. I remember actually turning axles and the sort on the mill. It was a bit of a cobbled-together setup but it worked surprisingly well. I had the axle in a collet in the mill spindle and a lathe tool in the mill vise, and used the table axis feed to face, and the quill to turn down the diameter longitudinally. It was a vertical lathe of sorts. It seemed rather magical to those unfamiliar with such a "it's the middle of Sunday night and I need this done" technique.

I learned to use a lathe before I learned to use a mill, and at home I bought a lathe before I bought a mill. I would say definitely go with the lathe first. You can make a lot of non-round parts by other means (sawing and drilling for example) but for round parts like hubs or axles the lathe is really the only way to go. You need one.

Now, I see a little bit of Chinese machine bashing going on in this thread. They aren't all bad. I've been quite happy with my little 8x14 chinese lathe at home for the past 5 years. It's a decent quality unit. We just picked up a 1961 Logan 11x24 for 696 and while it was all there, quite honestly it was a neglected disaster upon receipt. I had to disassemble it and completely rebuild it. It's still not back together yet so I can't comment on how good it will be.

Unfortunately, a lot of times schools give no regard to used equipment and are always looking to buy new.

Used is fine if it's in good shape and not worn out or missing parts. You want to consider this: Will you use the machine to do projects or will the machine itself be the project? Right now with the old Logan I picked up, it's the latter. But at a price of $0 I can't complain.