If you got a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you got a lathe, everything looks like... lathework? I've done numerous parts with this lathe in the last months and I am quite happy with it. Unfortunately the manufacturer went out of business decades ago, so no spare parts (except DIY), no service data, nothing - just a massive lathe for small lathework.

Pure luck (and sophisticated ebay search keyword lists) help to find the good stuff cheap. This is how I stumbled upon a nice "little" few-100-kg lathe. A motor crane helped to lift the thing. No small cars were harmed during transit.

The puzzle consists of multiple parts:

The rubber insulated cables were a bit crusty (lathe was powered by this very cable earlier that day, protected by a 10kW circuit breaker)...

The wiring was removed, dirt and "molten" rubber removed, rubber replaced with oil resistant silicone (for car use).

... re-wiring:

There were two holes in the front of the lathe - the perfect location for a wooden tool mount to store the related tools to work on the lathe...

A view under the hood...

A small 12V DC pump, powered by an old Linksys router wall-wart, drives the circulating oil cooling. The revolver mechanism at the end allows fast tool changes.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: