looking for a metal lathe

You will find it hard to get a lathe of that size without 3ph power.

I gave up on finding a decent old lathe after some two years of digging, looking and getting less than impressed with the worn out units needing beds ground or trued and 3ph converters that robbed turning power at high electrical use. I finally went to Grizzley  out of Springfield Missouri and bought a new one.  Yes, it is a Chinese or Taiwan or someone foreign manufacture but for the price, being true, having interchangeable components I could work with and buy repair materials for was worth it.

Mine is a 12x36, gear drive, reversible, single phase 220.  They are the same lathe sold by names: Grizzley, Enco, Rong Fu, Birmingham and others.  I was happy enough with the machine and the price I then bought a 9x39 end mill from them as well.  both take current manufacture common bits, will use most anyone elses heads or collets and have good quality; not tool room or production shop grade but to specs I can meet as well use.

www.Grizzley.com

As the others stated you are severely limiting your search with the 1 phase deal. Most of the time you will pay through the nose for a single phase machine, a similar 3 phase machine and converter will be much cheaper. A few years ago a person was a well to buy new as used because of high demand pressure on price but that is no longer the case. Check Craigs List and Ebay often as lots of people have hi buck toys like lathes for sale for cheap. You are good with your swing requirements makes sure you dont short yourself on bed either. Far too many people that buy hobby lathes buy too small and too short and find that all too often they have to farm out work they thought they could do in the garage.

I went to a lot of sales, tooling never came with the lathe unless it too was worn out.  The 3ph units lose quite a bit of power as well use a heck of a lot more electricity than the single phase I currently have.  I have seen many lathes and mills come to market since things got tough but the pricing is still high and the machines worn thin.

I gave up fighting with an old LeBlond lathe that I could no longer buy head components for, it had a 480/240 3ph converter and a 16" swing with a 42" track.  This was a great unit for gun work I used to do but I was also having trouble maintaining tolerances so it went to junk.  That is when I bought the Grizzley 12x36, not been dissatisfied.  Single phase 240, reversible, geared head instead of belt and very decent basic attachments included as was the support stand.  It beat the LeBlond tolerances by a full .001 in every operation.  Price was very close to buying a used unit so I went with new.