Jim

Thats the absolute best situation, a friend with the machinery and willing to teach.awesome, I wish I had that when first starting out.spent a boatload of $$ on stuff I really didnt need.

Some random thoughts, suggestions:

Look at joining /participating in forums such as Home Shop Machinist, lots of very good info there, and they are willing to teach. Practical Machinist is another good site, but is very much geared towards the professional... They really dont suffer fools or newbies kindly.

For tooling.. Buy quality and buy it once. That imported stuff may look bright and shiny, but thats about it. Ive had too many problems and wasted too much money on imported tooling. If you wouldnt own a double manufactured in X country, chances are you wouldnt want tooling from there either.

EBay is an excellent place to buy tooling, look at used/pre owned, quality tooling generally doesnt wear out quickly, and you can generally get it for dimes or pennies on the dollar.

Quality end mills and lathe bits are expensive, for end mills look at reground or Refurbished save you a ton of $$$. Reground generally means undersize, so a .500 inch EM may be reground to .485 dia, not a problem for most cuts, and it will give you good practice on shop math. Indexable lathe tooling will confuse the heck out of you, may want to look at decent HSS or carbide tipped tooling starting off.

Dont plan on using your buddys lathe/mill cutters, bring your own, time can be discounted cutters. Not so much. Buy a few extra for your friend that will go a long way.

Lots of knowable folks on this site.. Keep that in mind. Also post WTB in the Buy/sale/trade section on this forum. Never know what someone has..