From what I remember the harbor freight lathe was not terrible, I just had crummy tools and not a lot of material to practice on when I had it. I’m not sure if they still offer it. I graduated ten years ago now, the class I took was through a trade school, they would allow high school students in at 10th grade if I remember correctly and still cost a bit of money, mainly for materials etc. I don’t think the cost was to terrible, I think it was around 1500 a semester but I could be wrong about that lol. They really should have more classes for the trades imho. I mean hell, someone could put themselves into hundreds of thousands in debt for a degree that likely won’t get them anywhere, or they could spend a very small fraction of that, learn a trade and likely have a good paying job before they even graduate