Basic lathe question

Great - thank you!

metal lathes have more and slower speeds. they use tooling for cutting metal, so everything has to be a lot stouter and heavier. the metal cutting tooling is held within the lathe, where wood lathe tools are held in the hand. metal lathes are designed for work to a much higher tolerance than wood lathes, so they are heavier and more expensive. metal lathes make very nice wood lathes, though with a lousy diameter to dollar return. A stout wood lathe can be used for metal spinning, and some try to do more conventional metal cutting on wood lathes, but it isn't a very good idea.

. About $2,000 dollars

Not much. I've used both. How the material is held is different. And, more importantly, wood cutting machines rotate much faster than metal cutting machines. My drill press is used for both metal and wood, although there are bits that should only be used for wood. A metal lathe may use a coolant. The softer the material, the faster the cut.