I have a small lathe and milling machine I got from Harbor Freight. I also help the local blacksmith in my spare time.
Harbor Freight now has a new mini lathe for about $250 !!
I would not be without a lathe and mill in the workshop. There are bargains to be had on Ebay if you are prepared to wait. I managed to get a customer return lathe for less than half price a few months ago, it replaced a 100 year old Drummond that I had used for years. Old lathes can still turn out accurate work as long as the headstock bearings are not too worn, and can be picked up for ten's of $ rather than hundreds.
Ya know there is not doubt taht it would be nice to have access to folks with a lathe. However, turning stuff for folks would end up getting expensive and time consuming. We need to be understanding that some folks may not wanna do custom work for folks and if someone says no or they are not interested to respect that and not bother them. BE COURTEOUS.