Something else I have been wanting to do with this lathe is tilt it. Slant it rather. Right now it works okay. The bellows catch almost all the parts and chips. Makes clean up and swapping between brass and plastic fairly easy, but this has to be done fairly often, which also adds to the cycle time.
I think with it slanted, I would remove the bellows and go with a metal bypass or sliding style between the spindle and carriage. A simple rubber sheet would be good enough on the outboard side. May even be good enough for both sides.
Removing these bellows gives a lot more room between the spindle and bed. Slanting it too will allow full runs without the worry of parts and chips filling up too much. I also intend to finally put a chip guard on it. Since we won't be opening and closing it so often, it would be beneficial. I find delrin parts all over the shop where the lathe slings them after cutoff.
Not a lot, but maybe a dozen errant parts so far. Not safe either. ;( Dodging bullets....literally.
I have been thinking about the Tormach lathe as well. I have read most of those threads here and watched most of the videos. It doesn't yet offer the auto closer, but promises it will come. I would wait until that is ironed out before I committed to one of those. They do look like nice machines.
I might sell this one later to help recover a bit of the Tormach cost. I think it would be a worthwhile investment. Especially with the turret.