hi all ,have always had a lathe in the corner of the workshop for the last 25yrs.couple of years back i went to look at an ajax bench mill with a "20 bed advertised on this forum but local to me.to cut it short i ended up buying both the mill and the ajax bench lathe with a "36 bed and "1 1/2 headstock bore that was for sale as well.both nice modernish[1980,s?]machines with lots of extras thrown in by the generous seller[cheers nick ,you know where they are if you need to use them].have made lots of bits for my guns on them .my latest project was to make up the tools for opening up fixed shotgun chokes .basically an extended adjustable reamer with a bore guide and a gunsmiths lead lap.used them to open up the chokes on one of my s/s ten bores an a s/s webley and scott 12 bore that was very tightly choked.gave me much satisfaction when both tools worked superbly ..sometimes i might have been better off buying rather than making parts but i it do it for the personal satisfaction..30 yrs ago i used to use the little myfords in the machine shop were i worked. even back then they seemed a little quaint compared to the more modern stuff we had but even as a callow youth i found that they had a certain charismatic charm which made me want to possess one..the advances in medical science make it much more practical for the novice machinist nowadays because unless they are too mangled if you can now get your fingers sown back on if you have a little mishap::in my day when it was gone it was gone!::..cheers..greasemonkey