No experience with this brand but it looks like a standard Chinese built bench lathe. If you are looking for high quality you really should be searching for Taiwan built equipment, if purchasing Chinese I would shop by price and expect to do quite a bit of work to make it accurate. There is an "Asian machines" section on here that should apply to almost anything you're looking at new online. Look at Precision Matthews website (they're a forum sponsor). They import machines from China and Taiwan and offer good customer service here in the US. If I were buying new, and wanted support, I would look for someone like them rather than going on price alone but I would still expect to tear the machine down to at least clean it before putting it into service.
Please know that your question has been asked many, many times on this and other forums and unfortunately the answer almost always is either expect to rebuild it from new, or buy quality used. There is a member
@DavidR8 in Victoria BC who has recently been through exactly this exercise. You may find it helpful to read through his posts to get a feel for where you're likely to end up. Spoiler alert, he recently bought an older model lathe after initially getting a Chinese built mini lathe.
From what I've read the Myford lathes are what I would be looking for if I lived in the UK and needed a quality benchtop machine, either that or an Enco unit, some of which come with built in milling capability. Quality machine tools are built to last quite a long time and this is one area where you really do get more for your money with a used machine than something new unless you are willing to spend lots of money.
The two manufacturers I mentioned are known quantities with a broad following ranging from hobbyists to professionals. If you haven't found it yet
http://www.lathes.co.uk/ is the master resource for machine tool information. They have a classified section that will give you an idea of what machines command what prices, and might even have something you'll be interested in close to where you live.
General advice:
Buy quality, you won't be sorry in the long run.
Get as much tooling included, it's very expensive and you'll need it to do anything.
Take you time and know what your requirements are before buying anything.
Ask questions, lots of them. This place is great for that
Read about other's experiences, it's free
This hobby is very exciting and when you first start out it's tempting to try and build your shop all at once. Reality is most people gain knowledge as they go and many would have done things quite differently if they had the knowledge they have now when they started out. Don't be one who buys the wrong tool and quits from frustration, you have come to the right place for help.
Cheers,
John
www.stuermer-machines.com
