As you can sense from the responses so far, most of us don't NEED a lathe.
If we walked around our shop and had to pick the tool that is the most fun
to use, we, who have them, would most likely pick the lathe.

While there are some weekend square projects, most of them take longer than
that. With a lathe, from start to finished (that includes finish) is
measured in minutes to hours. Some projects are useless, like the mushrooms
mentioned. We call them "art" or "craft" depending on whether you have your
lathe in a shop or studio

Some people buy a lathe as an extension of their love of wood and
woodworking. Some find it so fascinating that they quit building square
stuff. Many, as noted in the responses, will use it occasionally as therapy.

How do you justify that you need it? You don't. You want it. If you smoked a
pack a day at $2 a pack (don't know what the price is, but this works for
here,) you'd burn up $730 in a year. If you smoke, quit, and you have your
budget. Then you'll have to worry about the dust in your lungs.

For a $730 budget I'd buy:

A used lathe or a Jet Mini with extension. ~$250
The $29.99 set of HSS turning tools from HF ~$40
A good quality 1/2 inch bowl gouge ~$50
A Talon chuck for the mini lathe or Stronghold for a full size lathe ~$200
Pen kits, book, wood. ~$60
That leaves $130 for some roses and a bauble for SWMBO. Or maybe a nice
dinner out.

Gene

"NoNameAtAll" wrote in message
...
Way back in middle school the lathe was one of my favorite tools in shop
class.
I'd love to own one, but I'm having a difficult time convncing my wife
that I
need it. We just made candle holders in shop class, and while I'm sure
it's
great for things like table legs, lamps, and baseball bats I have to
concede
that I really can't think of any practical uses for it since I don't have
any
need to make any of those things. Actually making a homemade baseball bat
would
be kind of neat but it's tough to justify buying a lathe just for that. If
you
can help me convince my wife (and myself for that matter) of the
usefulness of
a lathe I'll be eternally grateful.