Good Luck, not an inexpensive hobby, neither is high end postal stamp collecting, go figure.
I truly enjoy the discussions about "They Don't Make Things Like They Used To", there are almost always products that are well made and will last a lifetime like the 'Old Days", these are expensive however.
We live in a disposable goods world, why buy one expensive product that will last 10 years when you can replace it with 5 inexpensive products that live for 2 years, also the kitchen appliances will have gone out of style so you will need to replace them anyway. I am sure that you know at least one person that will regale you with the story of their parents fridge that has been in operation since 1965, (I was born in 1959 by the way) exactly how many of todays consumers would even contemplate keeping a kitchen appliance for 10 years let alone 40. Why would a manufacturer design and produce a product that will last 20 years whilst knowing that the consumer will discard it in less then 10 years when it becomes unfashionable.
Can you say Corian?
Machine tools took a slightly different route to the present, in the distant past all machines were manual, there were thousands of small shops across the country that bought hundreds of thousands of small lathes and milling machines, this was a viable market for the manufacturers of such tools. As machine tool technology improved with NC in the 60's the companies that embraced it thrived and those that didn't not so much. This led to many tool manufacturers closing shop.
Can you say Bridgeport?
The ones left standing see little market in manual machines , this leaves the hobbyist in quite a quandry, should I buy a $5000.00 manual lathe made in Asia or a $30,000.00 Haas tool room lathe that is difficult to operate as a manual machine.
There appears to be no middle ground.
