If there is nothing obviously wrong (check the typical/obvious stuff) or the specific items I mentioned above, then in my opinion, that's a heck of a deal for the bare lathe. If you can get chucks and tooling, that would be even better.
I paid less than $1k for mine with 6.5" Buck 3 jaw, dog driver, index-able turret tool holder, bed mounted turret including tooling (2 nice 1/2" Albrechts, threading die holder/guide, etc.). But it did not have fixed and follow steady rests or the taper, all of which are rather rare for the 11" Rockwell. Gears and head stock were absolutely perfect other than a slipped lock ring on the selector making the back gear impossible to engage. I thought there was just an adjustment needed on the apron clutch, but turned out the clutch worm gear was shot (I didn't know this was a problem item at the time). But the “gotcha” for me was that the bottom of the cross slide was absolutely TERRIBLE, which could have been a minor disaster due to scarcity of good parts. Fortunately, and completely counter to my typical luck, I met (on the net) a marvelous fellow who gave me a truly amazing deal on a very nice “matched” saddle and cross slide from his parts lathe.
Others have mentioned having significant wear in cross slide area as well, including some “in the business” who see quite a few over time, so I would suggest VERY carefully looking at the ways on the saddle (with the cross moved back), and if you see ANY sign of galling or scoring, take 10 minutes (or less) and remove the cross slide. It’s very easy, just remove the SHCS behind the tool post, back off the gib screws, and slide it off the back side taking care not to drop or bind the gib. Before removing the cross slide you might want to remove the rear shroud (2 SHCS hold it) to see what the rear of the ways looks like.
You might also want to check the vari-speed drive in the cabinet. It is also very common for these to need bushings, though if badly worn, perhaps shafts as well. No big deal, just 1” CRS for most of them, but I was able to turn my under to 0.970 and make custom bushings for the one bad one I had.
Oh, and it seems the vari-speed “tachometer” (to use the word VERY loosely) is a bit problematic. Mine has a broken casting and I’ve talked to 2 other with similar problems. I’m setting mine up with a digital tachometer, and others have ditched the vari-speed drive completely in favor of a VFD to control the speed. I’m using both the vari-speed and a VFD so that I can get a broader speed range from about 30 rpms up to just over 2000. The spindle will handle the over-speed just fine, particularly in an HSM invironment.
Just thought of something else. Make sure you KNOW what type of grease is in the spindle bearings. The OEM spec was for calcium based grease. If that’s what is **KNOWN** to be in there, then there are modern compatible greases available. Problem is, over the last 30+ years, calcium based greases have been largely supplanted by Lithium based greases. Unfortunately, if you add Lith to Calcium, it will cake up and can certainly cause bearing problems. This happens all to often, and in my case, the owner died and the son had no idea what his father had put in there. When I took it down to purge and change to a modern synthetic, even though the grease looked good when I just checked behind the shield/seal, I found it had already caked up pretty badly. So that’s all flushed out now and I know exactly what’s in there.
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I’ve grown rather fond of this lathe and I’ve been through every part now, so as long as my memory does not fail me, I’ll be glad to pass on what (I think) I have learned. Good luck!