Whit,
Sorry for the late reply. I've never received a personal message through MTBR before, so I never check for them. I caught this one by accident. Maybe I can set things up so that messages also get sent to my Hotmail account.
As to your question about the Hardinge lathe (and I am by no means an expert on machine tools), it's a cool little machine. It's a second op lathe ie. it has no lead screw so it's not a screw cutting lathe, since there's no power feed to the carriage.
A friend of mine had one of these and basically used it as a crown race cutter. I'm not sure of the spindle bore size but I remember that it was big enough to take a 1 1/8" steerer.
The 5C collet capability is definitely a nice plus.
I could say more but MTBR is limiting me to 1000 characters it seems.
Sorry again for missing your message (I see that the CL posting for the lathe has closed). Hit me up through my Hotmail account if you need to get in touch again.
Best,
Alistair.