First woodturning lathe?
I started woodturning 4 years ago, but stopped after 2 years because the teacher left the school. I really want to take it back up as a hobby. I was looking for some advice on buying my first lathe, any particular makes or models? I'm only 17 so as you can imagine I don't have a lot of money to be spending on it.
Look on Craigslist. Lots of people are selling their tools these days just to pay the bills. I looked in the Phoenix area and found several decent industrial sized ones for low prices. The little ones that only handle 24″ are not worth having. Get one with a 36″-48″ capability then you can turn table legs. Also checkout the many ShopSmith Mark 4 and Mark 5 machine tools. The shop smith converts into a lathe, disc sander, vertical and horizontal drill press.
Here is a pic for you to look at. The asking price in this example is $300 or Best Offer.
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/tls/2573854770.html
Check for used tools in your community and you will save a bundle and probably get a decent bargain. Always test out the tool before you buy it. Good luck.
Check out grizzly.com. Their tools are top quality and very reasonably priced. Their shipping is even pretty impressive! I can’t ignore what your other answer was, but I’d feel bad had I not mentioned grizzly. The other answer may deal far better with your exact situation, at the moment.