I had a 1236 for a few years. It's a decent lathe for smaller items (pens, stoppers, small bowls, etc) but the lack of weight limits how heavy (or out of balance) a piece you can turn on it. I turned bunches of 10" bowls on it but I had to make sure the blank was pretty balanced or the lathe would bounce around.
I never had any problems with the Reeves drive and you can even modify the speed adjustment lever to add one more slow speed to the lathe.
Depending on the price it might be worth considering...