It's a nice looking lathe, but I'd think for $750 you could get a used lathe with bigger capacity, a hand wheel, and easier speed changes, possibly even variable speed. Heck, the new Jet 1220VS is less than that, even with a bed extension. (No cool cast iron legs, though.)
As an aside, back in the day, you could buy the headstock for the Walker-Turner 952 (similar lathe, it looks like) for $20. Here's the manual and price list:
http://www.owwm.com/pubs/808/1773.pdf