I started on this lathe (my brother's), and needed to use it again while I was visiting him and away from my own shop to finish up a project for an upcoming family reunion.
Going from my Rikon midi to the HF model wasn't bad. The biggest issue I had was that I kept reaching for the non-existent hand-wheel. If you're doing pens or other small items, this can be annoying because there's not a really great way to turn your work with the motor off (for, say, hand sanding or inspection). When I was living with my brother, I had looked into getting a wheel for his lathe, and I think there was one from jet (or compatible with jet) that would also have worked on the HF lathe, so it's possible to add one, but that's additional money from the budget.