The Sound Of Silence 

Mark, for absolute silence or as near as you'll get, look for an older cast iron lathe with plain spindle bearings and preferably a spliced/scarf jointed flat belt or poly-vee drive and pulleys like the South Bend 9" models or a watchmaker's lathe, as they're smaller and more portable. Also highly accurate if looked after. The only noise will come from the leadscrew drive gears and motor hum or the PWM whine of an inverter if it has one and please wear safety spec's or glasses, especially when turning brass or bronze. Modern sheet steel machines hum and vibrate but there may be some quiet ones. The best thing as always is to see and hear them in person, as you can't rely on someone else's opinion when it comes to something so subjective.

Thank you so very much for the response and info! I know doing what I am trying to do is kinda dumb but I will do it anyway. Quiet, chip control/containment seems to be the big three things I need to worry about,If I ever get this set up i will shoot you a pic.

Mark, I have a South Bend 9" in my kitchen next to a power fed 800mm tabled 3MT spindled geared head variable speed bench top milling machine so it's not that dumb an idea, just not ideal, that's all. On the opposite worktop I have a stripped down 90 degree V6 4.3L engine block from my 1992 GMC Typhoon and 2 pairs of cylinder heads plus other components on and under the 16" optical rotary table I just had to have and after all the tooling and measuring equipment stacked up next to the electric hob, I literally have less than 2 square feet of worktop space to prepare meals and the handle of the milling table extends over my chopping board! Chip control will entirely depend on what you're cutting and how you cut it. Sure, there will be the odd clear up to do but if in doubt just cover the floor first in plastic sheet like they do in the movies when they're about to whack someone in a warehouse down by the docks and feed them to the pigs! :-p Just remember the five 'P' rule; Proper Planning Prevents P!ss Poor Performance. ;-) Oh, sorry, the six 'P' rule. See what I mean?!

Are you sure we are not brothers from a different mother? I recently did a head job on 02 malibu 3.1 needed head gaskets in a area about the size of a phone booth lol

Was that a Ridiculous Six too? If you can get past the first half hour it's a really good movie. Vanilla Ice was great as Mark Twain.

Me too, I was wondering how that restoration was progressing.