I have a 1236T that I got a couple months ago and I am still finding cosmoline to remove!
My lathe is virtually identical to yours except for size. If you do metric threads, you will find a few pitches are missing from the charts on the machine. You need to do use the 32/40 gear combination to get those. I have three phase with a VFD and started with the basic functions, I don’t even have variable speed yet. I will be adding more features as I decide what is most important to me. That is the nice part of VFDs, you can easily add as you go.
You are going to love your lathe, it is a joy to use.