Man, I am overwhelmed by all of the replies! Sorry, bad joke.
Is there ever truly such a thing as a good joke? You can't beat good old fashioned sarcasm, IMHO.
Anyways Chapter 1 in learning to operate a lathe or What I learned today;
1. I cannot center a piece in a 4 jaw chuck without a dial indicator (not sure if I can do it then either)
Depends on whether you're chucking a piece which needs to be centred else working on raw stock where close enough is fine. If it's raw and you're turning it down somewhat, it'll soon be centred fine.
2. A small paint brush is good for clearing chips out of the way
Aye, a paintbrush is handy, as is a good vacuum cleaner with nozzle.
3. I know so little I don't have a clue what I don't know. I guess I will be opening the books and start from the beginning and order a descent dial indicator.
With regards to books, "The Amateur's Lathe" by Sparey is a good starter reference. One of those books which is always handy to have. Most of it you'll pick up as you go along, and if you get stuck with owt, it's easy enough to just ask advice on here or elsewhere.
Regarding whether you did well on that deal, the cost side of things is open to interpretation, expectations, location etc., but looking at all of that tooling you got with the lathe, and the fact that the lathe itself doesn't appear overly worn or abused?, then I'd say you've done pretty well on that one. If you look at the cost of buying some of those accessories piecemeal, I think you may well find the cost of those alone would likely be coming close to what you payed for the whole thing. Simple things like steadies, for example, can fetch silly money, depending on scarcity. It's usually the tooling and accessories where you get stung on price, if you can even find the parts at all. A haul like that is never one to be sniffed at.
