I'll PS myself.
When the shop after swaging dies approached me, I did not have a lathe, one where I worked too small, couldn't even find a machine to rent time on. Only thing I did have was a guaranteed contract and decent lead time. So, I dove deeper into finding a lathe than what I'd covered just days before.
The size of the dies, and clamps restraining them shut was a significant swing. A lot of so called large machines couldn't handle the configuration over the cross slide. I know Pacemakers well enough to regard them for the treasure they are. For my work, lathes are two flavors; tooling or shaft machines. Monarch have always been a go-to but most models lack a broad speed range, suitable for the crazy long between the centers they build around; shaft lathes.
I can only have one lathe [so far], and concerning shafts, outboard supports aren't tough to build...
If I'd seen the Canadian Colchester, my wheels would've possibly spun, even not being a favorite machine badge. I'm 5'7'' and 165 dripping wet with pockets full of nickels, but some machines have the worst ergonomics. That's one of them.
Believe it or not, there are worse. They stuck me in front of a chinesium POS once. That's where the derisive "lathe shaped object" phrase had me in stitches. Like a drip pan directly plumb with front of carriage. Holy crap, who was asleep in 3rd grade physics, or not paid attention to roofing and gutters???
WTF? That shop ran all kinds of stainless, custom work but productive environment, which IIRC likes RPM & coolant.
