Got a mini-lathe for Christmas last year and needed something to put it on. Hundreds of spinning tops and mushrooms later, I’m pretty sure it was worth it. Here’s a couple other things from my lathe.
2x4 can be cut by any circular saw or chop saw in one pass. 4x4 is usually just a bit too big for a standard saws, so it's just mildly annoying vs doubling up 2x4s.