After two months of hunting - I finally bought a Jet 13x40 gear head lathe, and just last week got it in the hangar and powered up. Most of that two months was spent hunting for a good, used American lathe. Lots of them out there, but since they weren't pets and had to make money for someone their entire lives - well, there's a lot of worn-out machinery waiting for someone who wants a hobby of fixing it up.
Trouble I found was the difficulty in getting good, critical discussions on the internet. When people panned the imports, it was almost never real tech talk, usually just sweeping negative statements that really didn't help. Just rants, actually.
If time's not problem, then the hunt for that great American machine tool can be fun. It will turn up, given time, and probably at a good price if the word hasn't gotten out. Helps if you live in an industrial part of the country.
Yahoo seems to have a group for every machine category. Check the import lathe group there for discussions of the Harbor Freight, Grizzly, type low-cost import lathes - some mini, 4-9 inches, and the larger 12 - 14 inch lathes. the South Bend gang has a group, also, I think, Craftsman/Atlas. I found the Sheldon group very helpful when I was looking at a nice old Sheldon. which, alas, had too much wear on the ways, something I learned how to check from that group.
The low-cost Chinese machines ain't necessarily pretty, and they don't look or feel like the heavy iron of old American production machines, but they're just fine for the occassional, non-production type work we're likely to do in the hangar. (I doubt the Chinese machines killed the American manual lathe market - CNC machines did that.)