Buying a lathe, what tooling should I get/avoid?

[Downunder Bob]

Sounds like the consensus is to stick with the flat kind. I get one grooved one with the lathe, so I'll stick with square for extras for now. Thanks for the reality check!

I think that is good advice. The grooved type are at best a compromise, and you run the risk of a standard tool holder or bar not sitting flat. the general idea is that you can use them for holding round boring bars, but given that most round boring bars have a flat on the bottom, you don't need the groove.

Also in my opinion for holding boring bars you are better off getting the tool holder with the round hole it is designed to hold boring bars, and by making a set of sleeves you can hold all different sizes of bars, and by being able to rotate them you can set up with pos or neg rake and anything in between.