Hi Blair, Congrats on getting a lathe. Be warned, its addictive. Your lathe should come with a face plate (usually they only come with one faceplate), a tool rest, a spur center and a live center. As to what you need: A cup or ring center (safety center) is easier to learn with than a spur center. You can also convert an old dead center by sharpening the rings edge and using a dremel grind 4 - 6 scallops into the ring of the dead center). It will turn the wood fine, but if you apply too much pressure it will slip on the ring and thus not spin. This means if you get a catch, it wont do much damage to your turning or you. It also helps teach how to use the tool to cut properly as then the piece will turn as you cut. If not it will just let the center spin. If it spins too much, just tighten up your tail center more. I would have a couple face plates. a 3", 4" and 6" faceplates will be good. Bowls up to 12" can be done with the 3" and 4" face plates. I would recommend getting good solid machined faceplates. Oneway, Don Pencil and Bestwoodtools make great faceplates. I tend to shy away from the welded nut to steel faceplates. But that's me. I just like a good solid substantial faceplate that I know will take the rigor of turning without my having to wonder if a weld will hold or not. And you want a faceplate that has many screw holes. 6 - 8 on the 3" and 8 on the 4" and more on the 12 on the 6" etc... These will hold the workpiece. As a side note on faceplates. Don Pencil also offers a good center finder that works with his faceplates. And no, I'm not associated with Don, but I saw his tools at the Pasadena AAW symposium and was impressed. A scroll chuck would be nice for bowls and other work, but it is a luxury at this point. If you do get a scroll chuck, make sure to save your money and buy a decent one. Scroll chucks by Oneway, Teknatool and Vicmarc are all good chucks. My personal favorite is the Oneway Stronghold and Talon chucks. Teknatool makes the Nova, Super Nova, Titan and Nova Compac chuck. Of Nova's, I would prefer the Super Nova for most use. But that is equivalent to my Stronghold or Talon (somewhere in between). The Nova and Compac both use two tommy bars to tighten the chuck and makes it awkward at best, seeming to need three hands to use. Some people don't mind them though. The Compac is nice in price, but it is limited in its capacity where the others accept a wide range of jaws and have greater capacity in scroll range. The Vicmarcs are nice in that they use a hex key instead of a chuck key type key. In all honesty though, I've never had a problem with my chuck key type operated Stronghold or Talon. You will pay between $150 to $300 for a good scroll chuck though. So again its a luxury at this point. Tools: I am not sure what turning tools you have at this point, but you mentioned doing spindles. So I would imagine you to have a roughing gouge, spindle gouge, skew and parting tool. For bowls, you need a good bowl gouge. My own recommendation is a 3/8th or preferably 1/2" bowl gouge. A 1/4" bowl gouge allows for smaller bowls or detail work. A good heavy round nose scraper would be good. And that should do you for beginning. Safety: Well you mentioned the face shield - good job. That's what you need. I would also recommend a turners smock or shop apron to keep the shavings off, as well as stopping the bark from hitting and tearing your clothes. Workboots made of leather - some even use steel tipped boots. You don't want to drop a turning tool on your foot. Or a large bowl blank for that matter. But it has happened to many a turner. A good lathe is fairly quiet, so its not as much a problem that you would have to have hearing protection. If you are running a dust collection system though, you might want them for the amount of noise that the collector generates. Dust mask - many bowl blanks are often spalted. You don't want to breath that stuff in if you can help it. Sanding dust isn't good for you either. There is always a debate on whether or not to use gloves. I generally don't wear gloves while turning. Some do because of the bark coming off the bowl blank is rather abrasive against the hand. If you do wear gloves, cut the fingers tips off, and make sure the gloves are a tight form fitting kind. A loose glove could get caught and become more a hazard trying to yank your hand inward. A non-slip mat in front of your lathe. Shavings can be slippery on either a concrete or finished wood floor.
Well that's all I can think of at the moment. --Jim M.