You should take up 512 on his offer. He's a good guy (bought from him on this very forum and he's as straight as the day is long) and you'll probably pick up this stuff much easier if you have some help.
I was lucky. When I was growing up, my dad had a distributor machine. So at 12-13 years old I was doing advance work and such. Sadly, when I was 14 he sold it. He is still kicking himself in the can for that all these years later.
I finally bought my own and its now up and running. You can do much more with the machine much quicker. But 512 could definitely get you going and shorten up your learning curve.
