Thanks for the welcome and comments.
I’ve been pretty happy with the lathe and having so much fun learning the skills of machining. I was planning to use carbide insert tools but decided to man up and learn to bring HSS. It took a while to get it right but I can put together a pretty good tool now. I went down the path of fabricating a guide tool but found much more success leaving the grinder rest horizontal and hand grinding resting my hand on the table.
I had some fun last week turning my first thread. I was using a piece of structural steel so wasn’t bothered about the hairy finish, the problem was The tread was more a ramp rather than 60 degree peak. I checked and double checked everything, it seemed I was losing synchronisation with the leadscrew. After reading through more articles online I finally realised 30 deg mark on my lathe is actually 60 deg from perpendicular - so obvious when you look at it. Anyway threading skills progressing now.
Main project at present is to build a new electrical system for the lathe. Only having a Fwd / Rev worries me every time if switch on - have I set the control to off?
You've begun a learning curve that will never end. Learning to hand grind HSS tool bits is just the beginning, but a skill well worth having, some jobs just work better with HSS, particularly single point threading. The next thing to learn is hand sharpening of drill bits, it's not hard, just takes a bit of practice, once you start doing it regularly you'll find it becomes fairly easy. Start with an old drill somewhere in the 3/8 -1/2 inch range and using a brand new drill as a pattern. There are also some good guides on youtube and instructables and on this forum plus others
Scrap structural steel is great for practicing on, most fabricating shops throw away a large amount of scrap, that is quite often big pieces, cut it up and use it for practice, I even use it for projects where appropriate.
Don't feel too bad about being caught out by the 60* 30* trick At least now you understand the difference. About half the lathes in the world are built one way and the other half built the other way, so anyone can get caught by it.
I'm surprised that Hafco sold you a machine without a dead switch, I'm asuming you bought it from the agent in NZ, check with the relevent electrical authorities in NZ . I'm pretty sure here in Aus its a legal requirement that you have to reset the main switch when power is restored. I'm also pretty sure your laws and ours are the same in electrical standards. My lathe, drill press and band saw, and that is hafco, all came with dead switch as standard.
Also don't stress too much about the belts being difficult to change. I put mine onto the low speed pully when I first got it, for screw cutting and it's still there, you'll find that the 6 speeds from there are generally all you'll need unless you are doing some very small work.
The lathe I used when doing my apprenticeship only had six speeds and the fastest was only 350rpm