I didn’t really have room for a true full size lathe, or really money for a small one right now. But I still wanted to be able to do small projects, so I found a nice alternative from Grizzly which is a drill press lathe attachment. It was only about $20.00 plus shipping. So a really affordable option.
I just turned down my first square into a cylinder. Not advanced stuff yet, but worked well. I will post some photos later.