My 2 cents: I see 2 possible issues.. First , the 8 inch blade, you will be somewhat limited to thickness of wood you can cut.. as a turner, I'd want to be sure I can cut a 6 inch blank (3 inch either side) which my 10" saw can do.. you may be limited to , I think, less than 4 inch thickness with an 8 inch blade.. Second, if I had that machine, the very first thing I would do is add a splitter to the throat plates that are made for single blades... (since the saw has no riving knife) especially working with the sort of woods that turners typically work with .. you won't see case hardening or stresses in the wood until the kerf pinches back of the blade and your board jumps up and slaps you in the nose harder than a baseball bat.. (if not worse) I commonly get that with some rough sawn oak I happened to get that was not really sawn properly (or dried properly) - some pieces actually had areas of twisted or squiggly grain and when ripping them down , very often the relieved stresses will make the board pinch the kerf closed (so I always thank whoever designed the riving knife that is standard on newer saws) - sometimes so badly that the board won't move either forward or back, have to shut off the saw and use a chisel to spread the kerf to get the board off the saw...
Dunno about you but as good quality as the older machines may be, that 8 incher would be just too small for me (since I am not JUST a turner, but also do flatwork), and the lack of safety features, I'd be almost afraid to turn it on..
