I been searching for a lathe for a while now, over the past few weeks I have had a look at 2 Harrison M300's and a Colchester Student 1800 all priced in excess of £2K - to say I was not impressed is an understatement, worn beds, missing teeth, broken handles and bits missing. I am sure there are good ones out there but £4K + is more than I want to spend. I am looking for a reasonable size metric lathe 300/750 - 1000 with a decent sized spindle bore 38mm+. At the risk of opening a can of worms regarding ching chong kit I was wondering if anyone has any experience of the Chester Crusader or the Axminster CQ6230a these seem to be good value at around £2.3K + vat although the axminster's cross slide travel is a bit restrictive. On top of it all I dont have 3 phase so I have to factor in the cost of a converter.