Good running 1A as starter machine ....I like it
I think it depends on your level of comittment to the shop project , and the general direction you want to go
as well as how much $$ you want to spend. I would dearly love to have a 1A especially if it was a 3" bore ...they made also 2.5 hole.
Power tends to be a big issue ,,,,,since you have 3 phase available ,and its just a matter of running wires you are far ahead ...it would be hard to find an inverter for $1000 that would run it. OTOH $900 might get you a 12" craftsman lathe that you could do small stuff with and probably would cut threads. Do you want to do larger work ...or smaller work ? Things will go much faster in starting up with a smaller machine, however you seem to be somewhat hopefull that this is what you want. This thing will hog metal and do cutoffs and drilling like crazy. Probably does not have the threading attchment.....I am about to rig somthing up like Hardinge uses ....master follower...have been looking for the threading attachment stuff a long time. You can cut metal and turn diameters with very little tooling, and you can adapt most turret tooling from smaller machines....bu making bushings