I have a little buddy and am really happy with it. I put a six inch drive wheel and 3600rmp 3hp variable speed motor on it to make it a steel hogging monster.
I second having a kiln for heat treat, it allows you more options than just simple hardening. You can anneal already hardened steel, thermal cycle steel that you are unsure of previous heat treat, mess with hamon (which i dont think many commercial heat treaters will do), experiment with hardening temp, soak times, tempering temps ect. Most importantly for me it eliminates the variables of hardening in the forge. They usually hold temp to a few degree's so it takes allot of the headache and heartache out of ht.