I've been doing machining as a hobby for about 5 years now. I started off with a little Sherline lathe and not much else. Nowadays I run a Sheldon L-44 lathe (from the Air Force, ~1954 AFAICT) and a Precision Matthews PM-728VT. I've been eyeing CNC, but the appeal of machining for me has been how hands-on it is (I'm a software developer by trade).
My most recent project has been to make some solid brass wall hooks for a coworker. His daughter is on a rowing team, and they want to wall mount an oar. Turns out, it's hard to find a wall hook that can hold something 3" in diameter! Here's a photo of one of the hooks (I'm still polishing the other one up).