Contrary to what another poster has recommended,I recommend strongly that your first machine should be a lathe. It is the most versatile machine of all. And I do not mean an ATLAS!!! Get a DECENT machine from PM as recommended. I started with a 12" Atlas lathe about 50 years ago,and an Atlas milling machine. Spent most of my time making tiny cuts that the lathe was only capable of taking,and it was brand new. The mill would cut brass all right,but forget it on steel. I sold it to a clockmaker who only used brass,and it was adequate for his work. Sold the Atlas in new condition to a motor rewinding shop since that lathe was made primarily for truing up commutators.
My first DECENT lathe was a 10" x 24" Jet bench lathe,which I wish I still had,as it would cut a very wide range of threads. It was a belt drive,which will give very smooth finishes that looked like the work was nickel plated. It would take much heavier cuts than the Atlas. I could make parts in a short time with it,that would take all day with the Atlas,which was just built too light for serious use,and had a ton of pot metal gears and other parts that could easily be over strained. I had to buy new pot metal half nuts every several months.
These days,most lathes are gear head.Easier to change speeds,but they leave tiny echoes of the gears meshing in the surfaces of the work they do. VERY expensive lathes will not do that,but you won't easily be finding a Dean,Smith and Grace lathe,nor are they easily moved!! Their 13" lathe is massive. I tried one a few years ago,but it had been run to death,and they wanted 3X what it was worth.
My current small lathe is a Hardinge HLVH,which I was lucky to get. It is one of the finest lathes ever built. A smallish lathe,but hugely expensive. But,it does have a limited range of thread cutting ability. My larger 16" lathe can be made to cut a very wide range of threads by changing a gear in the gear train,to send different speed ratios to the quick change gear box. I found several gears that will fit into the 16" lathe's gear train.
If you get a reasionable sized lathe (10" or 12" swing,you can buy a Palmgren milling attachment to do small milling with. I had the milling attachment for my first lathe,and it worked pretty well,even on an Atlas.