I own two lathes and two manual mills I have a chinese and US made version of each. When properly set-up, buth do equally as well. Be careful on purchasing used equipment. Some of the older US made lathes and mills were production machines. Many (but now all) were used until they would no longer hold the tolerances needed for production. Shop around. Many of the older lathes did not have flame hardened ways. My Chinese lathe and mill are real machines, but not as pretty as my good old American machines