After teaching myself to turn on an old Atlas lathe I "upgraded" to the Delta 46-460 after reading several reviews. It runs smooth and quiet and the centers lined up perfectly right out of the box. I have already turned several pieces on it and it works perfect. The only issue is that the forward and reverse switch is labeled backwards. But I knew that from reading reviews and I have no issue with it. This is a great midi lathe for beginners or weekend turners.

After fixing the second one myself, it is a decent lathe. The first one came and had an intermittent speed control, called customer service and after waiting one hour got the NOT customer service person who knew absolutely nothing and all she could mumble is call Amazon. I did and Amazon sent another one right away. Being wary, I set it on my bench and noticed the reversing switch caused the lathe to run opposite what it was labeled. I pulled cover and the switch was wired backwards. Fixed it myself. Delta's quality control is non existent. If you are not a fixit person BUYER BEWARE.

The first one I ordered arrived with the same trouble that apparently a lot of people have had. The variable speed did not work. It would come on barely, run a second, then if you slightly turned the knob cut out, etc...I called Delta and they said it was a bad control panel, and I could either take it to a service shop or return it where I bought it. Now, since I bought it form Amazon, they picked it up the next day, shipped me a new one immediately, and refunded my one day shipping fees. I thought that was AWESOME. It was the best experience I have ever had returning something. My new one seems to work fine, and I like it so far very much. But if I were someone looking to buy one of these new, I would absolutely make sure I bought it from someplace like Amazon where a return would be no fuss, since i am by no means the only person to have had trouble with a bad control panel or whatever causes these issues. The other thing that really surprised me was that when reading reviews, a lot of people said that the reverse/forward function on their lathe was backwards. So you place it in reverse to actually run it forward. This is not a big deal at all, but that seems like something that would have been addressed. However, I have the exact same issue, on both the one I sent back and the new one. I believe this (10/21/2016) is a few years after some of these people wrote about that problem.
TLDR It seems like a great lathe, but I would not buy one from any place that I could not immediately return it, or try the one I buy. And honestly, I'm not positive I'll buy Delta stuff in the future. Those little things are just a little scary of what else is going on.

For what I bought it for it will be just fine. My problem is that I expected better balance and less vibration from it running at medium speed and empty. I also noticed there is a minute wobble to my bowl chuck which is not there on my old lathe. I expect the top shaft is untrue. It will be used primarily for sanding and finishing, for which it excels with a very low, low, and reversing switch. The lathe is also very quit, and at the low speeds I primarily use for finish work it doesn't vibrate too badly. I may replace the top shaft on it, if I wish to do more with it in the future, it is certainly capable. One more note in favor of the Delta is how smoothly the rest fence glides along the bed. I would prefer a little sturdier rest than a five eighths inch, but again, it's sufficient for a small lathe. A good friend of mine has the same lathe (his first), and he absolutely loves it, and I firmly believe it is the perfect first lathe, good quality in general, parts availability, etc.

This lathe gets used at least 1.5 hrs a day. I have had it over a year. It is my second lathe, after getting the nova midi lathe. This has great torque, capable of turning a full 12 inch dia bowl, if you trim it up good before you put it on. I would recomend this lathe to anyone. I plan to get a large lathe (20 inch swing) in the future, but this lathe has power that needs to be respected. It can hurt you good if you loose focus on your work. I dont even have carbide tools and this lathe rips through hard oak, maple, and ash like no ones business. I run it on the second belt gear even roughing out a 1 ft diameter piece.