Thanks, Sanddrag! I'd seen those before (and even printed the lathe book) but had lost the bookmark in my massive list of links. I think those are old Army manuals, aren't they?
For advice, check out
http://www.cnczone.com/ and
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/
How are you making out with your HF 8 x 12 lathe? We haven't done anything with ours yet due to other projects. I did go check out a couple of Bridgeport mills recently, but none of them were quite what we wanted. In fact, we may hold out for a better type of mill. I'm also considering looking for an old Bostomatic CNC mill. Some of the 300 series machines have sold for as little as $1,000. to $1,500. recently!