lathe buying advice

Yes, but it's one I don't check every day.

What do you have to say to me that wouldn't be of interest to others in this group?

control...have=20

That's not the same lathe - we were talking about the 200, you're talking about the 300. But I agree you had a bad experience, the question is whether your experience was typical.

Denis, The craftx unit is completely different then the General I tried. As an fyi - I owned the next version down craftx lathe (with manual speed control). It was an excellent starter lathe and I used it for 2 years non-stop. It eventually snapped the internal gearing used to adjust the belt position, and in all honesty, it was probably used more than it was intended to as a hobby lathe. No regrets here by having a busybee lathe as my first one. When the gearing went, it was, to me, time to move to something different, rather than repair the busybee unit. (I needed the motor for buffing) I then went to the lathe that Sears sells ( see Darrells site for some great info), and when I had to replace the belts after a year, I decided the price of the belts, and the associated annoying replacement procedure, was not worth having to do again. The sears unit now sits idle under one of my workbenches - I hold onto it as it came with the duplicator unit, and figure some day I may need it! : )

I wonder if the origin of the General lathe you are talking about is not the same as this one.

Correct, its the 300 - with all the "commonality" across models, figured it was worth mentioning. The kicker is I really liked the overall design of the 300, and the size was perfect for my needs.