The big issue with swiss/sliding head lathes is you need accurate bar stock to begin with, as accuracy is highly dependant on stock/bushing tolerance.
To give you a rough idea of the most complex common part I make at the moment, it's around 40mm long and 16mm diameter, has a threaded centre hole, and two flats. At the moment, it takes 3 tools on the cyclone (OD turn, drill, and parting), it then goes in the manual lathe to get tapped, then in the mill to get two flats added, then deburred by hand.
I'd like to do that on a single machine. Load a length of bar, walk away for a period of time, then come back to collection of parts that just need minor finishing. To achieve that, I'd need an OD turn tool, static drill, rigid tap, mill, chamfer
That part gets paired with another part that takes 4 tools on the cyclone, and needs one of the drills swapped an offset reset between part runs.
I have plans for more items of a similar size, where one requirement is an offset centre hole, and also likely need the use of a rollerbox to get the accuracy (it is one part that would work well on a sliding head lathe, but a roller box is far simpler!), but a roller box won't fit the cyclone.
I also have a tentative idea for some parts around 50mm diameter, that could be machined more economically from bar stock on a lathe, than flat plate in a mill.
I could very likely go and buy a shiny new suitable lathe on finance, but I don't want that monthly headache, plus it would take up a fair amount of floorspace, and that's even if it would fit in the available height.
I'd think I could build something capable of what I need that would fit within a 4x6' footprint, and be no higher than 5'.
Another thing I do keep thinking about, is would I be better going for a slant bed (the cyclone is slanted), knowing it would be harder to make, or will a flat bed with suitable covers be good enough to handle swarf.
