Chris,
This lathe works good for small stuff and it would be great to learn the principles on. Aluminum rollers I made were easy, but steel requires smaller cuts, as it would on any lathe. Precision is, of course up to the operator, but I wouldn't try to make space shuttle parts with it.
Also, it's billed as a 7 x 10, but I don't know if I would feel comfortable with a piece of 7" diameter by 10" long piece of steel spinning in front of my face. LOL