Hi all. I am new here and have very limited machining experience. I own an HF 7x10 and have used it a little. My question is about a lathe my neighbor has. It is a Sidney with herringbone gears in it. It was built in June of 1944 and is a 16x48(approx). It was used by Mississippi State College and seems to be in good shape, only tooling is a four jaw chuck. My problem is, someone let me know that the speed may be too slow for using carbide cutters. Top speed is around 550 rpm. And if I use it on small stuff the IPM will be low. Any opinions about this? This thing is about 10 feet long total and probably around 5,000 pounds. David