Hello Firstgear,
I was setting up a job about an hour ago and thought about what is in your instructions. I'd noticed these little covers on my lathe and wondered what they were for and now I know thanks to you.
Anyhoo I measured the holes and they are a tad over 34 mm. 1" sched.40 is 33.4 mm O.D. and you will need two bits 3' long and a couple of strops rated at least 1.5 ton according to your instructions. If this is how the manufacture has said to do a lift you can't go wrong,(well you can but lets not jinx things),a lifting bar would be nice but provided you have strops or chains of a suitable length their will be no problem as long as you have head height. These lathes are a generic type some the basic structure is the same. On mine the center of the first bridge between the ways is a 18" from the headstock and the second at 28.5". You could do the lift with a single strop 2 meters long but 2.5 would give a better angle, get a 2 Ton strop. Put tailstock and apron at very end of ways opposite headstock, lock tailstock and move apron for balance.
1" sched.40 pipe can be found anywhere usually for free and a few bits are always useful to have kicking around. Sounds like the instructions you have are far superior to what came with mine.
Here's something I found out when on the scrounge at a company that imports pipe. Smaller pipes come in bundles bound with steel strap and complete with lifting strops. The company was throwing them away they had so many, now they sell them at 4 for $10 as a contribution to the social club. Ratings are between 1 - 5 ton and lengths from 1 - 4 meters. Anybody shipping pipe around you?