Hi Don - welcome to the Forum
I echo the advice to visit a club, and I see you've got on top of that already.
To answer your lathe question directly though, I'm sure you've already done a fair bit of research, so you'll know what sort of money they are. Set yourself a brief, taking into account what you think you want to do on the lathe now, and where you might be in terms of capability and experience in a couple of years time. You probably feel don't want to go overboard on the price, just in case, but you probably also feel that you don't really want to have to change it in a couple of years if your skills and ambitions have exceeded its capabilities.
Important questions to ask yourself are what diameter can be turned on the lathe? Does it have variable speed, and if so, is it electronic or done via a belt change? Can it run in reverse? What length can it cope with? What is the build quality? Does it have hollow headstock and tailstock quills? Is it 1 morse taper or 2 morse Taper? Is the motor sufficient for he capacity? Some of these are less important than others, but after a visit to your club, they will slip into perspective and their significance will be more obvious, and you'll have more of an idea of what you need, why you need it, and how much you're going to have to shell out for it.
(How's that for a lengthy answer that doesn't really tell you anything)?
