James; it really depends on your budget, nearly all of the 7x10, 7x12 lathes are pretty much the same, I have an 8 year old Jet 9x20 that is identical to a friends HF 9x20 other than color and price. I use the heck out of mine, as does he.
The Taig is a good SMALL machine, on your bench for around 250.00 with no accessories, well tooled about 600.00, for the same money you can get the HF 9x20, Grizzly also has good lathes in the same ball park, from what I've heard the Lathemaster 8 in lathes are excellent,but they cost around a grand delivered.
With the Taig or Sherline threading is cost prohibitive, on the 7x// Chinese lathes you have to exercise caution on the speed control they tend to go out if you turn the lathe on with the dial turned up.
Grizzly 9x20 comes with a 3 jaw universal chuck and a 4 jaw independent chuck as well as a backplate and a good MT2 live center, HF is the same except no 4 jaw independent chuck, regardless of what lathe you get you will have to nearly disassemble it to clean the rust preventative grease off, and possibly file a couple edges off of rough castings, I didn't have any casting junk on my Jet, but it's nearly double the price of HF or Grizzly, I helped one of my students set up his HF lathe and there were a few places that had to be cleaned up, mostly holes that had casting flash, nothing serious.
All I have is my metal lathe, and a cnc mill, and they both work well on wood too.
For the money, I would go with Grizzly unless you go for one of the 7x// sizes, or if your close to a HF pick it up at their store and save freight, but the 4 Jaw Chuck wit a Grizzly is a great thing when you need it..