Spent the morning with my 79 year old buddy. He has a nice old 9" SouthBend with the backgears in his garage shop. He was a machinist for many years and gave me the once over on the lathe. I hadn't used a lathe in 20 years, but it came back easily. His lathe has a 4 jaw chuck (something I had not used before) and it took a little getting used to to get thing concentric. Did some facing, boring, parting, knurling, etc. He's heading for Florida with his little Sonerai experimental aircraft and gave me the keys to the shop in case I need to use his lathe for the winter!
Now I just need some excuse to go and make stuff!!
J