[Chexposito]

i can agree with jspatz1 100%. the shop in our school bought Chinese equipment for classes. the teacher in charge has had nothing positive to say about them once they break (which they do). we also have a old English lathe in that shop along with the Chinese and he said he's never had to fix it, where as he's constantly fixing the Chinese lathes. this is our experience. also going to auction's is another great place to look, or talking with your engineering sponsors about donating old equipment that is replaced with newer equipment is a great place to get if from because it usually still works great, is free, and is as accurate as you want it to be.
also stay away from grizzley table top lathes... i never thought i'd see the day that a lathe had plastic gears in it... they also aren't very tight, so you have to push your tooling into the piece with pressure, which usually breaks the piece at certain radii...