So we have an old beat up Jet 14-40 lathe at work. It has been neglected over the years and crashed a few times. So it has a distinct beat to it no matter what speed range you are in. What I like about this lathe is the weight (around 5000lbs), its very rigid it has a 3 1/8" bore and a 7hp motor. I have been looking at lathes on line and I can't find anything close to this. The majority of the lathes I have seen appear to be rebrands from the same few Chinese or Taiwanese factories. The names that come to mind are GMC and Cadillac, someone must really like General motors Vehicles. The only couple of legitimate makes seem to be Whacheon and Summit for almost twice the cost. It looks like we are going to have to give up the 3" bore unless we go with a 16" or 18" model. So I was wondering what machine shops are using for manual lathes these days? Are the Chinese and Taiwanese lathes worth purchasing? This machine will be used nearly every day, so reliability and durability are a must. I would rather not go used as I really don't have the time to run all over the country looking at machines that are not what they were advertised as.