Investing in a new metalworking lathe is a big step for any shop (especially home shops), where there's usually no one around to help. Once the lathe is up and running, you should theoretically be able to make the special items you previously did without (or paid through the nose for), such as shafts, plain, tapered or threaded discs, bearings, and so on. But if you are new to this, you'll want to know a lot more than you can learn from the...