Several years ago We bought one of Chris's lathes because our repair load was simply becoming too heavy to continue doing on the equipment I used before that.We went straight for the deluxe, so that it would handle most all My repair jobs with ease, but also because I liked the idea of building a few cues a year too. I can't even imagine how many times over that lathe has paid for Itself By now in repair work alone. Of coarse as we grow we add different equipment, and desire to setup more dedicated machines for some operations, but I never regretted that purchase, I still use that lathe on a daily basis and don't expect that to change any time soon. I actually have another make repair lathe that i traded for a cue I built, and I never use It.