I'm tossing around the idea of making my own CNC lathe from scratch. $2300 after shipping gets you a gear-head 12x36 import with fit and finish issues all over. A CNC conversion gets rid of all the threading gears, the direction changing levers, the rack and pinion, the threading leadscrew, and the cross-slide leadscrew. Seems like a waste. On top of that, you still have to buy the new ball screws and mount adapter plates before it's ready for the steppers/servos.
That same $2.3K can get you some bigass THK linear rails and blocks, a nice 2-3hp Baldor/Leeson 3-phase motor, a VFD, some smaller THK parts for the cross slide components, all the necessary ball screws, and enough money left over to fabricate the rest of the lathe.
Due to the lack of a foundry, it'd have to be made mostly of steel, probably similar in appearance to the Oneway wood lathes.....