Room around the lathe, good light, no nearby distractions and no loud music or radio when you are starting out. Things happen fast on a lathe if you are not paying attention. Also the sound of the lathe will tell you a lot about how what you are turning is doing. When you are learning a good stock of "soft" metal is great to learn with. I love turning brass stock but aluminum is often cheap to play with. Some of the stainless steels are a pain to turn at first.
Ebay use to be a good place to buy scrap metal stock but now I buy more local stuff. When I go back east I look at my fathers machine shop scarp bin and take what I need or think I need. I pay the scrap metal price for it so no one thinks I am just taking the cream of the scrap. All his employees can buy surplus or scrap metal at the scrap price if the ask. A metal lathe can be addictive so be careful.
