Bones, I would follow Brian's advise, and work with what you've got and get a good feel for it, and then go for the fix. I've got a perfectly operating lathe, but hardly ever use back gear except for really big cutting. I've got a handwheel I use for fine threads, and use my lowest straight gear for most threading, used to have a dial indicator clamped to the bed to use for a stop point, but left that behind when I went DRO. If you need good books on basics with the lathe, its hard to beat the old south bend lathe books which account for about ten or so booklets, showing how to do most things you can do on a nine inch lathe, and advertising their own versatility at the same time. Good accurate information though, it was what we used when I got my year of machine shop in high school. "Run what ya brung", learn to use it as is, and it will teach you a lot that you won't learn on a machine that has everything. Enjoy making chips, if what you're working on doesn't turn out right the first time, just make sure you've got enough scrap for two of what ever you're making.

mad jack