[Jon Stratis]

A few years back my team's school built a STEM center addition onto the school. These sorts of additions are fairly expensive, so it actually wasn't that big of a deal to sneak a few thousand (ok, maybe a bit more than that) worth of equipment into the project budget and get all new stuff. Prior to that, the team got almost all of its equipment from Craig's List.

I think you'll find that teams get equipment in a wide variety of ways - Craig's List, retired machines from professional shops, in-kind donations, fundraising... all are very valid options, with their own pluses and minuses. Find the best one that works both for your specific area and for what you're looking for!