My lathe came from enco, pretty much the same as harbor freight. Had to completely dissassemble it, clean all that cosmolean off, and reassemble and readjust. Worked much better afterwards. You gotta stay on top of it and check the adjustments regularly. Same on my mill. Got it used from a friend that got it from harbor freight. He did beautiful work with it so I know its capable. He was a machinist so I dont think I will ever get as good as him on a hobby basis. But I sure enjoy what I can do with it. I'll hopefully get some time to work on some retracks for my P47 this fall. Been working on the design this summer and following a machining thread at rcsb. Need to knock that out and finish that plane.
Edwin