Lathe looks really nice, well done. Colour scheme matches your decor !

I was in the same place as you - hadn't used one since school and had plans for a CNC conversion. But I've been running the lathe for a while now, and made some nice parts, and most operations are pretty intuitive and you can get up to speed with the general stuff quickly. DROs are so handy, I have a colleague who still uses the dials on his lathe and is happy, but I couldn't go back to that system now.

So what I would say is use it for a while before thinking about CNC. I've found that it is pretty quick to make the parts 'by hand' if they are one-offs, and for me at least the CNC conversion idea is now on hold. If I do ever go CNC then I'd look to keep the handles in similar places as MPGs and have the easy option of semi auto operation.