I would agree with Jason on this, I have had no trouble parting off things like studs and small diameters, using a narrow tool, and sharp!, but the low power and smallish spindle dia. are not conducive to wading into bigger sizes - brass might be OK, but steel not so much. Depends too on the means of chucking, a small lever scroll chuck is not up to big cuts, a four jaw might do better but the work is some way cantilevered from the spindle nose. I made up a handle that can be quickly locked into the back of the spindle bore, ( if stock is not too far into the hole in the spindle ) , and if I'm in doubt about an operation like parting off, I'll pop that in and save a "bang -up". I made up a little back tool post for the parting tool, as in photo, and would have been using the handle on the metric screwcutting job on the arbor in the other picture. If you root about this forum there is quite a lot about the Cowell lathe, one of the USA members bought one a few years ago and sparked a fair amount of discussion. Dave