Smudger, I hope to encourage you to get into the hobby. It's very rewarding. I also have to relay some of my experience. When I first started out, a friend of mine showed me an ad for a new kit. The Little Kathy. The cutest little steam engine, and it was only $60 or so. This was a while back, at any rate, I decided to get one, he did too. I had no machine tools, and knew I would at least need a lathe. I bought a new Enco 9", had to save a bit, but I used that lathe for a lot of engines subsequently. If you don't have a lathe, get one, you can do a lot with a lathe. If you have questions, ask the board, everyone here is eager to help.
The problem with the lathe is it won't do everything needed to be done building an engine. I thought I could use my drill press and a xy table to substitute, cost you know. Boy was I wrong! I did complete the kit with my lathe and my kludged up drill press, but it wasn't all that pretty. It did run though.
The moral is, save up until you can get proper machinery. There is a lot of used stuff out there, and even if it's worn some, you can still do well making hobby engines.
I wish you luck, and hope you can build some really nice projects, patience is important.
maury
