[Andrew_V]

I've never found a problem using any Bridgeport clones, (Chinese or otherwise) oddly enough I've used and was offered to buy a "FIRST" Milling machine (long shang machinery co. ) I don't think you can go wrong with any of them of course with a little bit of knowledge and research on the companies. You should figure out what table travel size you want to work with. E.g. I have a Spanish Anayak FV-2 works fine all they way from the 70s

Things you would consider otherwise and have been mentioned before would be a DRO (I know you mentioned you didn't want one right now but its definitely worth getting), VFD/Variable Pulley , customer support (You might not have time during build season for example to fix a broken mill but I assume you can find a millwright or similar tho), "Oneshot" oil, size of machine taper (R8 works great for me and is cheap maybe look at retro fitting a TTS setup for the hell of it), Horsepower (2HP+) and RPM range (0-4500) (these two depending on what tool you want to run cuts you want to do of course)

Probably out of your price range but have you looked into any CNC machines (Tormach or etc). (I don't know theres some sort of education/STEM related discount) but this can save money/time on buy e.g. a turntable/indexer etc.

If your budgeting/purchasing department allows (or if thats you) try looking at "used" machines I know of some machine/job shops moving/closing who had some very new machines they couldn't move or were moving to a new machine suddenly. (e.g. started getting into alot of CNC machines) And you can get quite a reduction in price when buying used. (E.G. a nice Bed mill was going for 3-4K when it retained for about 33K..) Results may vary.

I was really tempted offer to buy just the "FIRST" badge off the machine haha.