I just wanted to make a comment on the Asian lathes. I have the 9 x 20 from Enco. I got this because I was very happy with the Enco drill/mill. Needless to say that they are two different animals. My mill is quite capable of doing very good work with good finishes. The lathe on the other hand is CRAP! To this day I can't get any kind of a "Good" finish on my cuts. I even have preminum carbide insert tooling.

I have done the so called 4 bolt fix for the tool post holder. I can't even guess what would happen if I used the old 2 bolt mount.

Forget parting off anything over 3/4" inch in size. The vibration will shake things off the wall. The real scary thing is when you do try to part off something it trys to pull in the tool. There is so much play in the slide. I have varaible speed on this thing. I have tried all speed under the sun. It's not like I don't know what I'm doing. I do have a background in machining!

I have heard from other 7x people that this lathe is fine when you do the required changes. I would stay away from the 9x lathe at all costs. Go find a old used Atlas or Clausing, they would be 200% better.