Thank you for all of the replies and suggestions. I should have given more context, but I was posting from my phone, which is laborious.
My daughter's boyfriend is developing an interest in woodworking and woodturning. He seems more interested in making smaller things and due to a lack of a workshop, works indoors. I wanted to try to make him a very small, lightweight basic wood turning lathe that he use on the dining room table. I am currently very short on spare time, so was hoping to be able to use off-the-shelf bearing blocks on which to base the machine. I have looked at second-hand wood lathes and have seen several affordable machines, they are all too large to use indoors, realistically.
I might need to think again or just wait until I have the time to build something using some the ideas given.
James