Hi Gordy, welcome to the site.

I had to wait weeks for my Grizzly 10x22 lathe since it was on backorder. Even though I had waited for years to finally buy a lathe, something about paying for it and not being able to take it home the same day really bothered me. I thought about all the fun projects I would be able to make and I read metalworking books and magazines every night. My wife was really surprised at how "obsessed" I had become with the hobby – even before the lathe arrived. The good thing was I knew a lot more about my machine and what I wanted to do with it by the time it arrived. But it was still a long wait.

In short, I feel your pain.

Any idea what your first project might be? Something you've seen on this site or something from somewhere else? Just curious. My first project was a spring center, and then the soft faced hammer. I wouldn't have been able to plunge into a steam engine right away until after I got used to my lathe by working out the kinks on less tolerance-intensive projects.