I've got the Clarke too and I'm happy with it - it does everything I want it to do, to a good standard. I do have to be prepared to make adjustments now and then. A lot of the previously mentioned 'slop' can be tuned out with patient adjustment - all the examples that I tried in-store were woefully out of adjustment, but it's nothing that a day's tear down won't rectify. Some may say this is not acceptable in a few hundred dollar machine but to me it's all part of the lathe learning curve and is an enjoyable process to boot, and after two years mine performs far better than when I took it out the box.
I read up on these machines before I purchased. I remember on one particular site a guy was using his to machine rifle barrels - if it's capable of that then it's fine by me!
