Need help setting up a lathe(Sherline)

I think that there is something to be said for starting with a parallel port and a cheap integrated driver board.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-3-Axis-TB6560-Ste...ma17-23/273503456084
For example.
You might well end up not using that for your machine, because you will probably blow it up before then But you will learn a lot in the process and then have a better idea which way you want to go.

I started with one of those, blew it up, replaced a driver, blew it up again... (The TB6560 is fairly fragile, a loose motor wire will do for them)

Eventually I ended up with discrete black-box stepper drivers and a Mesa 7i43, but I wouldn't have known that was the way to go without the early experiments.

kbec wrote:

I was also wondering what type of wire I should use to cable everything

In what sense? I use pink, mainly

Use stranded with ferrules where it is in cable clamps.

Use AWG suitable for the current. Logic wires need not be any bigger than 26awg, and smaller wires take up less space.

For wires that move, look at dedicated drag-chain cables.