Here's a place that has reviews of several mini lathes, and it includes the Big-Dog. This review is dated though, and the lathe as it sells currently has several options included.
Mini Lathe Reviews
Now I recently bought a Big Dog 7 x 14. And I'm a little embarrassed to say that it's still in the crate. There has been 1 thing after another come up. So I can't give you a ton of real world info, but I'll tell you why I went with this model vrs one of the others.
1st off, it does indeed come with many extras. Plus it comes with a 4" chuck vrs a 3". This may not seem that big of a deal, and maybe it's not, but the 4" chuck does have a larger bore, so you can use 3/4" stock through the spindle. You can't do that with a 3" chuck that most lathes come with.
And while the initial cost of a lathe is the tip of the iceberg, the high shipping from LMS kind of turned me off of their 7 x 12. If you go with the LMS model, be sure & read the shipping information.
Plus the Big Dog is a 7 x 14 compared to the 7 x 12of the LMS lathe. I know the Micro Mark is 7 x 16, but it's lighter than either the Big Dog or the one from LMS. The Big Dog has a bigger motor than the Micro-mark. Maybe not a big thing when it comes to pens, but in a lathe a bigger motor is a good thing.
I'm hoping when it gets a little warmer, that I can get this thing up and running. Right now, most of my shop time has been in short intervals due to my garage doubling as my shop. I can handle the heat a lot better than the cold.
Anyway, I hope this helps a little.
EDIT: I see you found it just before I posted this.
