Hi, Roy.

I think if I was in a quandry about whether or not I even thought I
would like turning, I would do a little background work first. See if
your Woodcraft has turning classes and try a good lathe with properly
sharpened tools.

They may be able to point you to your local club, and you may get some
great experience there as well.

Turning on a lousy lathe with poor (or incorrectly sharpened tools)
might just ruin you for woodturning. It is hard to get a good feel
for things when you don't have a good idea of what your equipment or
tools should actually do for you. And at that price point, you are
actually just dollars away from being able to get one of the good mini/
midis on the market now, the same ones that are used by full time
turners for smaller projects.

You should also google this group for the numerous discussions on
"what lathe should I buy" and "a good used lathe", etc. If I was
going to buy a smaller lathe, I would probably buy new. If I was
going to replace my larger lathe, I would probably buy used and get a
great deal off the retail price.

Just my 0.02.

Robert